Hidden Village of Cupcakes
by yobirin
Summary: The Hidden Village of Cupacakes lies to the north of the Leaf Village where 12 Genin are going through their journey of becoming ninjas. Please review!
1. Enter the Twelve Genin

**1. Enter: The Twelve Ninjas** -

The Hidden Village of Cupcakes lies north of the Leaf Village. In this village is the Ninja Academy where academy students are taking their graduating test. For future reference, the academy students at in this village are much stronger than the academy students from the Hidden Village of Leaves. "Okay, first on the list is Shizu", said Iruka. Shizu walked from her seat and went to the front of the classroom. "Please perform the transformation justu to look like me, then perform the replication justu", the instructor said.

"Okay", Shizu said quietly. "Henge!" With this word, Shizu transformed into Iruka-sensei. And then immediately, she shouted, "Replication no Jutsu", cloning her transformed-self 5 times.

"Great", said Iruka. "Now Tetsuma, it's your turn." Iruka went through all of the students. "Now let's go outside". They walked to the fields next to the academy and Iruka summoned a dummy with a target in the middle. "Kakashi, you get to go first. For those of you that don't know, this is the Regenerating Dummy. Perform your best technique againstit and I will evaluate if you should graduate", said Iruka "I want you to go in this order: Kakashi, Tetsuma, Hayoto, Jin, Chouko, Shizu, Genta, Reiko, Musashi, Marumi, Maasaki, Daichi. Okay, Kakashi, you may start".

Kakashi walked up to the dummy and prepared his technique. "Ice Release: Ice Slash!" said Kakashi. The Ice Slash technique is where Kakashi channels his chakra into his hand transforming it into ice and uses it to slice things. After getting cut in half, the Jutsu Dummy reformed itself.

Tetsuma then walked up to the dummy and took out his sketchbook and drew a wolf. He put his hand over the picture and out of nowhere; a wolf appeared and attacked the dummy with its claws. What Tetsuma just did was use his Bloodline Limit: Chakra Art. He developed this Bloodline Limit because he is from the Ayuta Clan. Chakra Art is where a person can draw something and make it go from fantasy to reality, but depending on the complexity of the created object, more chakra control and power may be needed.

Next was Hayoto, who always had his pet ferret on his head. "Earth Release: Rock Strike", said Hayoto. The Rock Strike technique is where Hayoto uses his chakra to create a rock that he flings at his opponent. The rock hit the dummy creating a crater in its stomach.

It was then Jin's turn. "Exploding Replication!" he shouted. Replication Release is a technique used often by Jin, a replication specialist, where he summons throws a replication at his target and the replication explodes on contact with an object. His replication struck the dummy blowing it high into the sky.

Chouko didn't even walk towards the dummy and just stood up and pulled out her sketchbook. She also has the Chakra Art Bloodline Limit that Tetsuma has because they're siblings. She drew a bow and arrow and it came out from her notebook. She loaded the bow and shot the dummy exactly in its target causing it to blow up. She enhanced the arrow with her chakra increasing its power and deadliness greatly impressing Iruka and her fellow ninjas. After she did this, she sat back down quietly.

Shizu still in shock of Chouko's power, walked towards the dummy. She put her palm out and said, "Water Release: Aqua Burst!". Shizu created an orb of water in her hand and threw it the dummy blowing it a couple of feet away.

It was the Genta's turn. He stood there for a couple of seconds and then his hand starting glowing and he shouted, "Roaring Fist." He punched the dummy blowing it 3 times as far as Shizu did.

Reiko slowly walked up to the dummy and said "Wind Release: Wind Cutter!" creating a blast of sharp wind with the palms of her hands pushed forward. The wind ripped the dummy into shreds, but it still restored it self.

Musashi was talking to Maasaki at the time his turn started. "Musashi!" yelled Iruka. This alerted Musashi that it was his turn. He walked up to the dummy, rolled up his sleeves and snapped his fingers creating a flame on his right hand. "Fire Release: Giant Fireball". During this technique, Musashi would create a bigger flame than the one already on his hand and would fire it at his target, or in this case the dummy. The dummy was hit by the fireball and quickly burned the dummy to ash.

"Marumi, I know your specialty is genjutsu, so you may perform one on me", said Iruka.

"Illusion Mist!" shouted Marumi. This caused a mist to appear out of her hands enveloping Iruka. He then started to see the Village of Hidden Cupcakes being destroyed and that he could do nothing to stop it, but after about 30 seconds, the illusion stopped.

Maasaki then walked up to the dummy and said, "White Laser"! This technique is where Maasaki creates exactly as the technique's name, a white laser. Maasaki moved his hands in a zigzag motion cutting the dummy into 4 pieces.

Last up was Daichi. "Lighting Release: Thunder Spark!" yelled Daichi. This would create lighting that would fire lightning in a straight line. This technique also burned the dummy.

After 10 minutes of silence Iruka said, "You all have done extremely well and have all passed the graduating exam. Now I will announce the teams. Team 1 is Kakashi, Shizu, and Tetsuma. Team 2 is Musashi, Masaaki, and Reiko. Team 3 is Hayoto, Daichi, and Chouko. Team 4 is Genta, Marumi, and Jin. The ninjas then stood up and moved to sit together.

Kakashi then looked around the rooms at each of the teams. On Team 2, there was Musashi. Musashi was always a quiet person. In fact, all the people on Team 2 were quiet people. He always wore red gloves and had a sleepy look on his face. His best friend was Masaaki who wore a gray jacket, dark glasses and also barely talked. He mostly listened to what Musashi would say. The last person on their team was Reiko who was a third wheel, since Musashi and Masaaki were best friends. She has long dark hair and often wore black clothes. And like the rest of Team 2, she was extremely quiet.

To the right of Team 2 was Team 3. The first was Hayoto who had a pet ferret that always sat at the top of his head. He was often cheerful and very protective of his ferret, Kasshoku. Sitting next to him was Daichi who was talking loudly to Hayoto. Like Hayoto, Daichi was cheerful, but he was also loud and talkative. Also on their team was Chouko, who had short black hair and was quiet and shy unlike her other team members, but as shown before, she was quite skilled.

Sitting in front of Team 3 was Team 4. Genta was very short for a 13 year-old and was very happy and energetic. Marumi wore a green jacket and had short hair like Chouko, but was happy and energetic. The last member of Team 4 was Jin who had blondish-brownish hair, a unique color that no one else in the village had, but he was still one of the more normal people in the academy class.

After staring around the room for a while, he finally looked at his own team. To his left was Tetsuma. He had glasses and short hair. He didn't talk that much in the class, but he was an incredibly fast runner. On Kakashi's right, there was Shizu, a normal girl who had medium-length hair that never really did anything in the classes they have together, but she still looked happy most of the time. As he finished looking at the newly formed teams, he heard Iruka-sensei begin to talk again.

"You will now go on your first mission," Iruka said. They were many shouts of happiness from the students. "Most team go on missions with only their team, but this time, all 4 teams will go. Your job is to go to the Hidden Village of Fruits and get the get an apple".

"An apple?!?!" yelled Daichi. "Why do we have to get an apple? What's the point?"

"There is a point to this", said Iruka. "To get to the Hidden Village of Fruits you have to get through the forest of man-eating rabbits and then after that, you have to solve the puzzle on the gate of the village. This test is not for the purpose of getting an apple, but it is to see how good you are at working with your team and the other teams. It will also test how good your survival skills, physical endurance, and intelligence are. But before we do that, we will hand out your ninja headbands. The Kappukekikage, or the Kappukage for short, of the Village of Hidden Cupcakes came in with 12 ninja headbands. He then passed one out to each person. The headbands each have the symbol of the Cupcake Village on it, which was a cupcake. The brand new Genin stared at their new headbands for a couple of seconds before Iruka said, "Okay, everyone go home and get ready very quickly. Everyone meet at the academy entrance when it's time. Bring supplies if you want to. The mission starts in 30 minutes." Everyone immediately rushed out of the room to their homes.


	2. Escape From the Forest

**2. Escape from the Forest**-

The 12 Genin rushed home to their parents to quickly gather equipment for their first mission as real ninjas. Kakashi sped home and when he reached his house, he ran upstairs to his room. He got to his weapon drawer and pulled got as many shuriken and kunai as he could fit in his weapon pack and he ran back downstairs. He went to his refrigerator and grabbed some chicken and rice and heated that up in the microwave. He quickly ate as his mom and dad came home. He finished his food as soon as they were able to see him in the kitchen. "Sayonara, Kaa-san, Tou-san", he said it to his parents as he rushed out of the door. He reached the Ninja Academy, he had ten minutes left. "I shouldn't have rushed so much", he thought to himself. After waiting by himself for five minutes people started to arrive.

"Okay, now that you're all here, we will start the mission", said Iruka. "Let's all go to the forest now". He escorted them to the entrance of the forest and told them, "You may start, but stick together. If you don't you might not make it out alive".

The teams rushed through the entrance.

"It's been so long. Shouldn't we have finished by now?" complained Hayoto.

"We only ran for about three miles", replied Shizu.

After a little bit more running, the twelve of them heard a loud noise. They all stopped and listened when a large gust of wind separated the 12 of them in half. Teams 1 and 3 were blown in the same direction and teams 2 and 4 were blown in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, team two and four were walking, hoping to find the exit of the forest, or at least find the other teams.

"KAKASHI!" yelled Musashi. "SHIZU! TETSUMA! CHOUKO! HAYOTO! DAICHI!" yelled Musashi, but then he felt a great pain in his left shin. "OW"!

"Shut up", said Reiko as she lowered her leg away from Musashi. "You're going to attract rabbits".

"Rabbits have come", said Maasaki softly in a monotone voice.

"Crap", shouted Genta as he backed away from the rabbits.

"What are we going to do?" asked Marumi. There are too many of them to fight.

"Just because there's a lot doesn't mean we can't fight", replied Jin. "Let's go".

The six of them then rushed towards the rabbits. Musashi was attacked by a rabbit that latched onto his right arm and he hit it with his left hand for about a minute until he realized that he could use a fire technique to burn the rabbit away before it gnawed of his whole arm. Musashi snapped his fingers and said, "Fire Release: Small Flame", lighting up his 5 fingers on his right hand. He directed the fire towards the attacking rabbit, roasting it. "Take that you stupid rabbit!" yelled Musashi at the burning corpse.

Maasaki used his White Laser technique. He shot the laser at the 5 rabbits in an arc, cutting each rabbit in half.

Reiko dodged jumping rabbit attacks for about a minute until she could find a time to attack. "Wind Release: Air Blade", said Reiko. This unleashed a giant, green boomerang-shaped blade of wind at the rabbits. This chopped the rabbits in half like Maasaki did.

Genta was fighting the rabbits in hand-to-hand combat with the rabbits by punching each of them in the face, most likely breaking their nose. "Falling Fist!" yelled Genta as he jumped into the sky and crashed down with his fist forward; creating a shockwave that destroyed the surrounding rabbits.

Marumi, even though a specialist in genjutsu, still knew a powerful offensive technique. "Shuriken Rain!" she yelled. This summoned many shuriken from the sky falling onto the rabbits, stabbing them, and killing most of them.

"Triple Kage Bunshin!" yelled Jin multiplying himself into 3 people. He then combined that technique with Exploding Replication to blow up 10 rabbits into pieces.

Maasaki saw Musashi's arm was bleeding from the rabbits, so he walked over and said, "Mystical Palm Technique", healing his arm.

"Wow, we really killed this rabbits", said Genta.

Team 2 walked away like nothing happened while team 4 stood for a while looking at the thousands of pieces of rabbit.

After some more walking, they reached the exit and waited for Team 1 and 3 to come.

While Team 2 and Team 4 were out of the forest Team 1 and Team 3 were having troubles with the killing rabbits of doom...

"How many are there?!" wondered Daichi as he skid away from the cannibalized rabbits. Tetsuma then angrily threw one of the rabbits harshly toward the ground... most likely killing it in the process.

"I don't know Daichi," replied Hayoto calmly as he made sure Kasshoku was still with him. "Kasshoku Drill!" This launched Kasshoku at the rabbit and also caused Kasshoku to have chakra surround him creating a magical drill.

Kakashi began engulfing his hands in ice and said, "Ice Release: Hail Bullet". This sent dozens of pieces of ice flying at the rabbits.

Shizu stood in the back, forming water that circled in her hand. "Water Release: Water Flow!" yelled Shizu. This sent a surge of water out of Shizu's hand hitting the rabbits.

Chouko stood silently beside her brother Tetsuma drew two sais with her kekkei genkai while her brother summoned crows with the kekkei genkai. "Black Feather," he said, causing his crow to shoot their black feathers rapidly at the rabbits. Chouko ran at the rabbits with Kakashi close besides her slashing the rabbits with his Ice Slash technique while Tetsuma's crows chewed the rabbits to pieces.

"Hayoto, watch out!" shouted Daichi as he rushed over to Hayato who was clueless of the rabbit that was about to attack him. "Lightning Rod!" yelled Daichi. Daichi threw a symbol on the rabbit and lightning roasting the rabbit, but he was attacked by another rabbit that Hayoto punched away. Daichi still got hurt but not as serious as Hayoto's injury would have been. The battle against the cannibalized rabbits and Team one and three went on for a bit more. Shizu fell down exhausted, she wasn't used to this much fighting before. Chouko suddenly threw her sai at her. For a moment it was as if Chouko was aiming for her but it was merely another cannibalized rabbit that was close to attacking Shizu. After that little incident the rest of the journey out of the forest was fairly easy, but quite annoying. Daichi continuously commented about the run in with the cannibalized rabbits and "when are we gonna get out..." It felt likes weeks before they got out of the forest to see Team two and Team four waiting, some patiently and some impatiently.

"It's about you guys came out of that damned forest," complained Musashi.

"Yeah, what took so long?" wondered Reiko. Maasaki merely nodded in agreement. It was typically for Team 2 to act so "cruel" to their fellow classmates. Kakashi stared at them annoyingly whereas Team 4 looked at the concerning. In Team 1, Kakashi's arm was bleeding lightly while Shizu had a cut a little above her eyebrow and a few scratches and bruises here and there, and Tetsuma had no injuries whatsoever. On Team 3, Daichi was limping slightly; Hayoto had small cuts around him along with Kasshoku and Chouko had a small cut on her leg and cheek. The only member that people were able to stand had to be Maasaki. The mission was over... now was time to go to the Fruit Village.


	3. Find the Watermelon Seeds

**3. Find the Watermelon Seeds-**

The twelve walked towards the entrance of the Hidden Village of Fruits and stared at the odd looking gate. It had two watermelons on the left and right sides. Between the watermelons was the name of the village. The Cupcake Village asked the Fruit Village to give their Genins a test.

The twelve ninjas walked towards the gate with puzzled looks on their faces.

"What are we supposed to do?" asked Shizu.

A voice started talking from the gate. "Hello Cupcake ninjas," the voice said. "Each of you stand on one of the raised pedestals. The ninjas listened and did what they were told. "Okay, time to start your scavenger hunt. I will now divide you into partners. The partnerships are Kakashi and Musashi, Shizu and Genta, Tetsuma and Chouko, Maasaki and Daichi, Reiko and Marumi, and Hayoto and Jin. The ninjas walked towards their partners. "Your objective is to obtain a watermelon seed. There are many different ways to get one, so be prepared for anything."

"You will now get sent into an illusionary dimension with your partner where you will search for the watermelon seeds. It was the Kappukage's order that you may not get into the village without finding the seeds", said the Fruit ninja. "Don't die."

The 4 teams weren't very surprised when they heard this. Each of them disappeared on pairs into their illusionary dimension.

Kakashi and Musashi were sent to a forest, something they were tired of seeing after their hours in the Forest of Death.

"I don't want to be in another forest!" yelled Musashi. "Don't complain," Kakashi replied as he kicked Musashi in his right shin. "OW!" he yelled. "You're supposed to think happy thoughts," said Kakashi.

Out of nowhere a giant flaming bush came out. It was two times as tall as the two ninjas. It had a watermelon seed stuck on the top of it. "What the hell," said Musashi.

The bush shot fire out of its mouth and Kakashi and Musashi dodged at the last minute. Another burst of fire was released burning the front of Musashi's hair. Kakashi rushed for the top of the bush, but had to fall to the right at the last second because another burst of flame was released.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball!" yelled Musashi as he aimed for the right of the bush. He used the technique again, this time aiming for the left of the bush. This created a giant fire that scared the bush into staying in one spot. Kakashi jumped for the watermelon seed again, managing to get the seed. He kicked off the top of the bush, propelling himself out of the ring of fire that was surrounded the bush. The illusion disappeared and the two were back at the entrance of the Fruit Village.

Meanwhile, Shizu and Genta were in their own illusionary world. It was also a forest with dozens of floating platforms in the sky, each about 20 feet apart, height-wise, and on the top platform, was the watermelon seed.

"They're so many platforms," Shizu said. "That'll take forever to finish. It'll take at least two hours."

"I know, but we have to do the evil challenge," Genta replied back.

The duo started their ascent of the platforms. After about 15 platforms, they stopped from exhaustion. As the two looked up, it seemed as more platforms are created. After another second, another platform appeared.

"Crap," Shizu said. "More platforms are being created. We got to hurry. I hate P.E."

"Fine," replied Genta grudgingly as he jumped up to the next platform.

1 hour later…

"I hate this," Shizu said for the 82nd time.

"We're almost there," Genta said.

Another hour later…

"We've finally reached the damn top!" yelled Shizu as she grabbed the watermelon seed on the platform, but she slipped on the top platform and fell to the ground. "Water Release: Water Flow!" she yelled slowing her fall because of the water she was releasing, but she still hit the ground pretty hard. "OW!" she yelled as she hit the ground." After a couple of seconds of recovery she said, "I'm okay." The two were then transported to the entrance of the Fruit Village.

Tetsuma and Chouko were sent to their world, a barren wasteland with a lot of dead trees. "So what do we do?" questioned Tetsuma.

"What do you think, we obviously try to find the watermelon seed," replied Chouko.

They walked a couple steps before the dead trees started to shake.

"Crap," said Tetsuma.

The trees continued to shake and they stood up with their branches pointed towards the siblings like a zombie. The two pulled out their notebooks from their jacket pockets and prepared their pencil. Their pencils shone with light and they started to draw.

"Eagle!" yelled Tetsuma as he raised his notebook towards the zombie trees, causing an eagle to shoot out of his notebook. The eagle pierced through the trees that were closing in on the two. He jumped on top of the closest tree and landed a couple feet away.

"Bow and arrow!" she yelled releasing her weapon. She loaded the arrow, shot the arrow and said, "Arrow Rain!" This caused her arrow to multiply ripping though the incoming trees.

This continued for a while and they finally decimated the army of trees and Chouko found a golden gem on the ground. She was examining the gem when suddenly, person rose from the corpses, so se put the gem in her pocket. "Hi, that was part one of your test," said the person. "I'm a Fruit ninja and you two are one of the more talented ninjas so we decided to give you a two part test. You also get to take a test where at least one of you must pass with 80!" The siblings were given their 10 question test and the Fruit ninja snapped his fingers creating two wooden desks and chairs. They sat down and started the test.

Question 1 was: 12.2232x + 1726232y29302939 and x291.29, what is the value of y? The other questions were the same type of problems, but with different numbers. The two stared at the problem for a couple of seconds before they started.

5 minutes later…

"Done!" yelled the siblings simultaneously and they gave their tests to the Fruit ninja

"Are you sure you don't want to check your answers?"

"We already did," they replied.

The Fruit ninja checked over their answers using his answer key and wrote their scores on their test with a red pen. He gave it back to them with the scores written on them. "Chouko, you got a 90 and Tetsuma, you got a disappointing 40," said the Fruit ninja.

"WHAT?!?!" yelled Tetsuma. "This can't be! It's impossible! You must have graded wrong! Did you mess up correcting!?!? Are you sure the answer key is right?!?!" He grabbed the answer key and checked it over.

"It doesn't matter," said Chouko as she stole the answer key away from Tetsuma. "I passed and we got the watermelon seed. That's all that matters."

"WHY?!?!" Tetsuma yelled as the Fruit ninja gave them the watermelon seed. When they go back, he sat down and hugged his knees while waiting for the others to finish.

"It's okay Tetsuma," Kakashi said. "You have to be happy! Think of this as something that will make you work harder in the future."

"NO!!!" Tetsuma yelled back. "I'm a failure."

Maasaki and Daichi were walking at a slow pace through their forest.

"I'm bored," said Daichi.

"That's nice," replied Maasaki.

"Why don't you ever talk?" questioned Daichi.

"I don't like to talk about it," he replied.

"See," Daichi said. "You never talk."

"What do you have against it?" he questioned again. "Or do you just like keeping quiet."

"Let's drop the subject."

Daichi continued questioning and Maasaki continued to ignore him. The questions brought back Maasaki's memories of his childhood, the event that caused him to subconsciously not like talking.

He was 5 years old and a war between the Cupcake Village and the Samurai Village. The samurai invaded the Cupcake Village and one of the attacking samurais was inside of Maasaki's house. His father had died protecting the village from the invading ninjas leaving only him and his mother left. Being only 5 years old, he didn't understand the situation too well. Maasaki and his mother were hiding in their basement behind many boxes when the samurai went down to search. Maasaki didn't fully understand that their lives were at stake so he said, "Kaa-san, what's happening?" This alerted the samurai and he found them and killed his mother. The Kappukage found the samurai ninja in the basement and killed him, saving Maasaki, but he was too late and Maasaki's mother had died. He ended up in the orphanage and from that point on, he talked only when necessary.

He was stain daydreaming until Daichi yelled, "Maasaki, there's a giant stag beetle eating a watermelon!" The bug was spat out the seeds and one of the seeds it spat out was a watermelon seed, but it spit it out behind it so they wound have to kill it first.

"Thunder Release: Thunder Spark!" yelled Daichi. He fired the electricity at the beetle's face, but the destroyed part turned into a swarm of ladybugs that attacked the two causing multiple cuts that started bleeding. Even without its head, the stag beetle continued to walk towards the two trying to attack.

"White Laser," said Maasaki. He fired at the bug and cut it in half with one accurately aimed swipe causing another burst of ladybugs to attack, causing more blood to drip from their scars on their faces. The last attack caused the stag beetle to become motionless though. The two walked past the giant bug's corpse and picked up the watermelon seed. The two were sent back to the village entrance. A ladybug had followed them from the alternate dimension, and it flew of Maasaki's shoulder onto Musashi's shoulder. Musashi looked at his right shoulder and started to panic.

"AHHHHHH!" he yelled. "It's a ladybug! Get it off me! AHHHHHH!" He then started to shoot fire everywhere before the ladybug flew away. He tripped in the end falling on his face.

Meanwhile, Reiko and Marumi were inside a forest and after 2 hours of watching, they reached a temple with a sign. On the sign, it read: Inside of this temple is a obstacle course and at the end of this obstacle course is the watermelon seed you seek.

"Okay Rei Rei, let's go into the temple," said Marumi cheerfully.

"Rei Rei?" she questioned.

"Yeah! It's my nickname for you!

"Don't call me that," Reiko replied angrily.

"But it's a cool name!"

"I give up."

The two entered the temple and upon entry, arrows shot out of the walls from both the left and the right. They jumped up at the last moment, but Reiko and Marumi were both shot in their right ankles. They were now limping something that they would cause their deaths if they continued on with the challenge. They managed to remove the arrow after a lot a pain. Reiko turned around and she noticed the temple door closed. They were stuck.

"We have to continue," Reiko said sadly. "If we don't get moving, we're going to die of starvation."

"This is great!" said Marumi enthusiastically. "We can spend more quality time together!"

"Great," said Reiko sarcastically.

They continued through the temple limping because of their wounded ankles and reached a hallway where swords were swinging back and forth, one in the back of another.

"We'll live," said Marumi.

They made a mash dash past the swords using as much speed as they possibly could, trying to not let their wounds slow him down. At the last sword, Reiko suddenly tripped on a crack in the ground and fell forward and would have had her nose chopped off if Marumi didn't pull her back. Marumi then pushed Reiko past the last sword and ran past it herself.

"Thanks," Reiko said.

"No problem," Marumi replied.

They reached the last chamber of the temple and saw the pedestal that had a watermelon seed on it, but it was at the end of a giant pit. The distance between the two ledges was great, even for a ninja.

"On 3 we run," said Marumi.

Reiko nodded and they counted, "One, two, three!" they yelled. The two girls started to dash and once they reached the ledge, they jumped and Reiko made it to the other side, but Marumi slipped. At the last moment, Reiko reached down and grabbed Marumi's hand. This brought back painful memories though. Her mother had died the same way. Her father tried to push her mother off a cliff and Reiko tried to save her. She was unsuccessful because she was only 6 years old and her mother died. Her father then committed suicide causing her to end up in an orphanage, the same one that Maasaki went to. This painful memory caused Reiko's hand to start slipping forcing her to lean over the edge more. This also caused her wound to get scraped on the floor as she also started to get dragged off the cliff. As the event dragged on, it became harder to pull Marumi up. The memories were flooding back, but using the last of her strength, she pulled Marumi to the top of the cliff.

"We're even now," Reiko said as she grabbed the watermelon seed.

Hayoto and Jin were walking in the forest towards the tower they had seen from the moment they entered the alternate dimension.

"So Jin, what do you like to do in your spare time?" questioned Hayoto.

"I don't know," replied Jin.

That was all the conversation they had during their 20 mile walk to the tower. After a two hour walk, they finally reached the tower and saw the sign in front of it. It read: Inside of this tower, there is a gate. Once you touch this gate, I will start reciting riddles and you will have to answer them. You objective is to answer one riddle right. If you get a riddle wrong, a wolf beast will appear so don't get any wrong. Have fun.

"Okay, let's go inside," said Jin.

"Wait, I'm not done reading," said Hayoto.

5 minutes later…

"I'm done," said Hayoto. "Let's go."

They entered the temple and Jin touched the gate.

"What is 2+2?" asked the gate.

"4!" yelled Jin.

"No," the gate replied. "It's an expression. I never asked what it equals."

Out of the gate came a giant wolf beast, big as Hayoto and Jin combined. Seeing the giant wolf sent a shiver down Hayoto's spine. "Triple Kage Bunshin!" yelled Jin. The three clones he summoned then jumped onto the wolf. "Exploding Replication!" shouted Jin. This caused the clones that latched on to the wolf to explode, causing blood to splatter on their jackets.

The wolf was not dead yet so Hayoto yelled, "Kasshoku Drill!" throwing Kasshoku at the wolf, piercing through the wolf's heart and killing it. The wolf's corpse then disappeared in a flash of light.

"Next riddle," said the gate once the wolf was killed. "How many legs does a dog have?"

"4!" yelled Hayoto.

"No," replied the gate. "It might have lost its leg when it was attacked by a cat."

Another wolf was created, but it was quickly dispatched by Jin's combination of Triple Kage Bunshin and Exploding Replication.

"If you turn on a lamp, is it plugged into an outlet?" asked the gate.

"Yes!" yelled Hayoto and Jin thinking how a lamp could work without electricity.

"No, that's wrong," replied the gate. "A lamp can be operated by batteries."

Another wolf was created, but it was crushed by the giant rock Hayoto created using his Earth Release: Rock Strike.

"How many letters are in the alphabet?" asked the gate.

"Twenty…" said Hayoto before Jin covered Hayoto's mouth.

"11" said Jin confidently (11 letters are in the words: "the alphabet").

"You finally pass," said the gate. The gate suddenly opened and Jin ran toward the raised platform that had the watermelon seed and grabbed it, transporting the two back into the entrance of the Fruit Village.

"Looks like everyone is done," said the Fruit ninja that guarded the entrance. "Put your watermelon seeds into the empty spots in the watermelon in the gate of the village. The twelve Genin places the six seeds they had found into the 6 holes in the gate, into the six spots where watermelon seeds should be since the watermelon that was on the gate was a slice of a watermelon. The door magically opened and the ninjas stepped inside.


	4. Duel at Daybreak: Kakashi Vs Tetsuma

4. **Duel at Daybreak: Kakashi vs. Tetsuma**

The twelve Genin were escorted from the entrance of the village to a hotel called Happy Hotel. They entered and the Fruit ninja that took them to the hotel said, "It'll take a while before we can the golden fruit for you. We've provided 4 complementary hotel suites. There's a room for each one of your teams on the 13th floor. By the way, what are your names? I need to record them."

"Kakashi Itonami."

"Shizu Seijou."

"Tetsuma Ayuta."

"Musashi Shinmiri."

"Maasaki Nagoyaka."

"Reiko Kanashimi."

"Hayoto Yukai."

"Chouko Ayuta."

"Daichi Souzoushii."

"Genta Kigurou."

"Marumi Akarui."

"Jin Mijikai."

The fruit ninja wrote their names down and said "Have fun." He then left the hotel,

"So what are we supposed to do while waiting for them to get the golden fruit?" asked Shizu as her team proceeded to their room, 1313.

"I guess we're supposed to just wait," replied Tetsuma.

"That'll be fun," said Shizu sarcastically.

"Of course it will!" shouted Kakashi being actually serious.

Kakashi opened the door to the hotel room and they sat on their beds.

5 minutes later…

The phone rang and Tetsuma picked it up. "The voice at the other end said, "Um, we misplaced the golden fruit so you might have to wait a couple of days before you can get it." He hung up.

"This is great," he told his team. "We have to stay here overnight."

The three tried to sleep because it was almost morning, but they couldn't and

Tetsuma said, "Hey Kakashi, do you want to duel? I've always wondered which one of us in stronger".

"Okay then since none of us can sleep," Kakashi replied. "Let's go the rooftop."

"I'll go too!" yelled Shizu.

The three of them left their hotel room, locked it, and walked up 2 flights of stairs and opened the door there. It was about time for the sun to rise as the two guys stood a couple of feet next to each other with Shizu sitting about 10 feet away in a chair.

"We go on three," said Kakashi. "One…Two…Three!"

The fight started and the two jumped off of the ground and landed 20 feet back to create some space. Tetsuma pulled out his notebook, scribbled for a couple of seconds and faced the pages toward Kakashi. "Crow," he said sending out multiple crows out of the book. "Black Feather." The crows shot their feathers at Kakashi forcing him to use the technique he had kept hidden since he learned it.

"Ice Release: Ice Blade!" yelled Kakashi. A giant blue blade made of ice appeared in his right hand after he formed the hand seals. He gripped the blade and swung in the direction of the feathers and yelled, "Ice Slash". This destroyed all of the feathers with a single swipe. "This is the technique I've just learned to use," he said to Tetsuma. "I can even combine it with my Ice Slash technique."

Tetsuma was still a little dazed from what happened, but he continued his Black Feather technique. Kakashi simply destroyed the feathers with his sword.

"Crap, I'll run out of chakra faster than him at this rate," thought Tetsuma in his head. "I have to draw my favorite animal. Flamingo!" Tetsuma yelled after he scribbled for a couple of seconds in his notebook. Out of his notebook, came 3 pink flamingos that flew around Kakashi. "Solar Wind," Tetsuma said. The flamingos reacted and flapped their wings to blast a powerful gust of orange colored wind at Kakashi. He jumped high into the sky to dodge the attack.

"What was that?" questioned Kakashi.

"That was solar wind, a wind created when my flamingos use the energy from the sun," Tetsuma said as he pointed to the rising sun. "The wind becomes much more powerful and can create holes in solid rock. The only downfall of it is that my flamingos can't use their powerful technique at night."

"Interesting that you chose to flamingos as your favorite animal," replied Kakashi as he back away to avoid another attack.

"Solar Wind!" he yelled. More of the powerful gusts of wind were created and were directed at Kakashi. He jumped again and the solar wind collided with the ground, creating a crater as big as the wind blast. Another solar wind was released and it hit Kakashi, pushing him onto the nearby wall, next to the door back into the hotel. He slammed against the wall and fell with a thud on the hard concrete. It appeared that he was knocked out.

Tetsuma approached closer to the fallen body and when he was only one foot away, Kakashi stood up and yelled, "Replication no Justu!" He created ten other clones. "Ice Slash," Kakashi yelled causing all of his clones to attack with their ice blades. The first ten all attacked only to have their blades pass right through Tetsuma confusing him as these ten continued to use their ineffective attacks while the real Kakashi dashed passed Tetsuma and slashed at all of the flamingos, cutting them in half and turning them back into piles of graphite. He then started blending in with his attacking clones. "Perfect," Kakashi thought in his mind. "He's confused now". Kakashi rushed up to Tetsuma and struck with his Ice Slash technique. Tetsuma was now slammed against the hard wall. He got back his balance and jumped at Kakashi while getting two kunai out of his back pocket. The two kunai strikes were parried by Kakashi's sword and he pushed Tetsuma back onto the wall.

"Wow," Shizu thought in her head. "These guys are strong. I better start practicing."

The fight then continued until the door leading to the hotel swung open to reveal Marumi and Hayoto, both with odd looks on their faces. "What happened to you two?" asked Shizu.

"My team, team 2 and team 3 went to a bar," replied Marumi.

"How did you get in?" Shizu asked.

"Well, we all used a disguise technique since we saw that the guy standing in front of the bar wasn't very smart," said Hayoto. "He couldn't see through our extremely simple disguise even thought it was quite obvious."

"We drank a little bit of beer for fun," said Marumi. "Reiko, Maasaki, and Chouko didn't go with us into the bar though. When we got there, they told us they were going back to their hotel rooms. Once we got back, we went to your room and knocked, but no one answered. Maasaki then came out of his room and told me that there was a lot of chakra coming from the rooftop, so Hayoto and I decided to go see what it was."

"Oh," replied Shizu. After Shizu said this, they heard many screams coming from the village.

"We'll finish this duel some other day," said Kakashi. "I want to see what's happening in the village."

"NO!" yelled Tetsuma. "That'll make it a tie and a tie is worse than losing"! Shizu then started pushing Tetsuma through the door, back into the hotel, and towards the stair. Marumi and Hayoto then stumbled behind them because they were still a little drunk. Kakashi followed close behind. On their way down, they met their fellow Cupcake ninjas and together, they walked to the lobby of the hotel and opened the door that led to the village.


	5. Ryouma's Past

**5. Ryouma's Past**-

The door opened and the 12 ninjas walked out into the village. People were running in all directions screaming. People were all panicking and quickly grabbing their important possessions and running off in different directions.

"What the hell is happening?!?!" yelled Kakashi.

The Fruit ninja they met was running towards them. "Come with me quickly!" he yelled while panicking. The ninjas ran after him. Kakashi looked back and saw that the cause of the chaos was only 50 feet behind them. The cause of he choas was standing before a man that was on the ground and cowering in fear. Kakashi stopped for a couple of seconds and watched.

"Please don't hurt me," whimpered the man.

The standing man performed a couple of hand seals and placed his hand on the forehead of the cowering man. He lifted his hand off and pulled out a white orb. The cowering man fainted while the white orb was placed inside a jar that was sealed shut.

"Hurry up Kakashi!" yelled Shizu. Kakashi ran back after his friends.

They reached a dead end. "What are we doing here for?" asked Tetsuma.

"Give me a second," the Fruit ninja said. "My name's Shin by the way." Shin places his hand a brick and the bricks magically disappeared and a steel door appeared in its place. The door then slid open. "Follow me."

They entered the secret area and each sat down in one of the metal chairs. Kakashi looked around the large room. It had plain white walls and had many chairs and a white board. "This room was used a secret base for us Fruit ninjas in case of an emergency, but Ryouma, that man you saw causing all of the chaos attacked the place where we were having a meeting. He stole all of the souls of the Fruit ninjas. I'm the only one left that can actually fight."

"Who's Ryouma?" asked Kakashi.

"Well it's a long story," Shin said.

"We're willing to listen," said Kakashi

"Ryouma used to be a Fruit ninja three years ago. We found a magical crystal, but to extract the crystal's magic, we had to develop a technique that would let us do that. We dedicated a team of ninjutsu specialists to create this technique, me and Ryouma were part of this team. Ryouma became too obsessed with the crystal though. He stayed up many nights and read about it. He learned about the thousands of legends on it. How certain men could receive great power from the crystal. How a peasant became a king. How an army of ten men overcame an army of one hundred men. He wanted to be like the people he read about because he was never really liked. He had a girlfriend at that time. Her name was Kami. She left him after he spent more time with the crystal than with her. She left him, leaving him heartbroken. I never saw her again. This caused his obsession to grow to a point that it became difficult for us to even touch the crystal, so we decided to remove him from the team. This devastated him. He took all the information he learned from working on the technique and left the village."

The ninjas listened closely. "His last words before he left were: 'I swear I will get revenge'. We didn't hear from him for a while, but one month later, he came back. The leader of his former team, the one who said that Ryouma should be removed from the team, was working late one day on the technique. He ambushed him and used a technique no one had ever heard of before on the leader. We found him later in the morning. He was dead, but all of his organs were still working, even his brain. His body remained motionless. We declared that he was dead, but we still couldn't figure out how. Over the next three days, the other members of the team were killed the same way the leader was killed, one each day. On the fourth day after the first attack, I met Ryouma. He explained to me his whole plan. He told me his reason was he felt like it."

"My plan was to get revenge on the team that didn't let me fulfill my dream." said Ryouma in the flashback. "So I changed the technique we working on. Instead of harvesting energy, it now steals souls."

"I panicked so I quickly used my Energy Cutter jutsu on him." continued Shin. "It slashed his whole body leaving a large scar. He broke through the wall of my house and ran off into the darkness. Now I assume he's come back to get revenge on the Fruit ninjas once again, three years after he left abandoned the village. I'm sorry that you guys were involved in this. I would escort you guys out, but Ryouma used some spell that's stopping us from getting outside of the village."

"I have one question," said Chouko. "What happened to the crystal?"

"I lost it yesterday," replied Shin. "They left me in charge of it and I don't know where it is."

"Did they give you the golden fruit to hold too?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes," Shin replied.

"What color was the crystal?" asked Chouko.

"It was gold."

"Is this it?" asked Chouko as she pulled a golden gem out of her pocket. "I found it during the challenges to get the watermelon seeds.

"THAT'S THE CRYSTAL!!!" yelled Shin. "I suggest you keep it though. If I have it and Ryouma kills me. He might get a hold of the crystal and its power. I need to go help my village now. Stay here. Don't leave this place." Shin approached the steel door and it slid open again and he left.

The 12 genin sat in silence. The thought of that they might not survive long enough to make it outside of the village was running through their heads. Chouko was holding the crystal in her hands staring at it.

"This is the cause of everything," she thought in her head. "It caused the deaths of many all over the pursuit of power."

Ten more minutes passed. "I can't take this anymore," said Musashi. "I'm going to go help Shin." Musashi attempted to run to the steel door, but Maasaki stopped him by pulling on his hood.

"If you help him, you're only going to die," said Maasaki.

"We're going to die anyway if he doesn't get some help," replied Musashi. He rushed through the steel doors.

"Then shouldn't the rest of us go?" asked Kakashi as he stood.

"No," Maasaki replied. "We need a lot of people protecting the crystal in case Ryouma finds the secret base."

Reiko stood up. "Um…well…um…I'm going after my team," she said.

"But we're supposed to stay here and protect the crystal," said Shizu.

"Nine people are enough. I need to go help them". Reiko ran off through the steel doors.

On the outskirts of the village, nine shadowed figures were standing next to the village entrance.

"Ryouma's inside?" asked a man.

"Yes," said another man. "He left me during our mission and I tracked him to this location. I assume he's come back for his revenge against the Fruit village.

"He better not die," said a woman. "I would then have to find a replacement for him."

"He won't," said another woman.

"How can you be sure Kami?" asked the first woman.

"Trust me, he won't," said Kami. "Ryouma…what have you become?" she thought in her head.


	6. Team Two's Fight

**6. Team Two's Fight**-

The steel door closed behind Reiko and the other ninjas decided to let them go and do what they think was right. When Reiko left the base, she saw Maasaki running after Musashi and followed quickly after them. "Should I be doing this?" Reiko thought in her head. Reiko caught up to her team.

"Reiko, what are you doing here?" asked Musashi.

"I'm obviously here to help you guys," she responded. "Hurry, we have to find Shin before we meet Ryouma."

Musashi then tripped, and Maasaki did the same thing. Reiko stopped and stared at them with a look of annoyance on her face. She then fell over.

"What the hell is happening!" yelled Musashi. As he finished talking, he looked down and realized that the three of them were standing in a giant puddle of mud. The mud started becoming more solid and rose off the ground forming a humanoid shape. The three stared in amazement as more of the mud became more humanoid shapes. They tried to back away, but their feet were stuck inside the mud.

One mud creature then attempted to attack Reiko. "Smoke Teleportation!" yelled Reiko. She put her hand on the mud and a giant gust of smoke circled around her team and in a couple of seconds, the smoke disappeared and team two was gone.

"Damn it!" yelled Ryouma as he jumped down onto the ground from the nearby building and slammed his fist onto the ground causing a small crack. "These kids are a lot more skilled than others at their age."

Meanwhile, team two fell down a hundred feet away from their original location with a dull thud. "What the…" said Musashi. "Reiko, when did you learn to do that?"

"I always knew," she replied. "There was never an opportunity to use it though."

The three heard footsteps approach them. "You guys didn't get very far," said Ryouma. "By the way, look at who I found." Behind him, his mud creatures were carrying an unconscious body.

"Shin…" said Maasaki.

"Yeah it's Shin. I've finally stolen all of the souls of that team that tore me away from the crystal. He didn't have the crystal though. I'm angry so I'm going to out my anger on you little weaklings."

"Fire Release: Flame Shower jutsu!" yelled Musashi. Fireballs shot down from the sky hitting the area around Ryouma and he put up his hand to block the fire. Once the smoke from the attack was gone, he saw that they were gone again. Ryouma created a crack in the ground again.

"We can't keep using Reiko's jutsu forever," said Maasaki. We have to fight back.

"He probably has the power of a Jonin!" yelled Musashi. "We only became Genin 2 days ago! What can we do against him without Shin?"

"We can try," said Reiko. "The town is deserted. Everyone left before he managed to put up the barrier. We might be the only ones left in town. Without Shin, there's no one else to help us. So we have to do this ourselves."

The three heard footsteps again. "This is like déjà vu," said Ryouma. "While I was looking for you, I decided how I was going to kill you. I will first crush your bones with mud and then harvest your souls. Mud Cage!" Mud appeared on the ground underneath them and started rising and creating an orb around them.

"Protective Shield jutsu!" yelled Maasaki. The mud tried to close in on them, but the shield protected them and the mud became dust.

"These kids are definitely too skilled for their age," Ryouma thought in his head. "Since you guys seem so skilled," said Ryouma. "I've changed my mind. I'm going to make it so that I get to hunt you guys down." He appeared behind Reiko and grabbed her by the neck. "You two guys, go in different directions or I will kill this girl". They were at a crossroad between the buildings and the two had no choice so they went in opposite directions. Maasaki went to the left and Musashi went to the right. Ten minutes past. The two were no where in view so Ryouma let Reiko go. "Now you, go down that path." Reiko walked straight ahead. She was afraid of looking back. It had sunk in that the three of them would most likely not leave this village alive. Ryouma decided to go after Musashi first because he had singed part of Ryouma's hair during his fire technique. He walked down the path to the left.

Musashi was walking slowly down his path. Looking back every once in a while, but he couldn't see much because of the newly created mist (It was about 4 in the morning). Mud creatures appeared in front of him.

"Giant Fireball!" yelled Musashi. The fireball melted all of the mud creatures in front of him. More mud creatures rose from the ground. "Small Flame!" he yelled. His fingers were engulfed in flames and he slashed the creatures in half. He continued destroying the creatures, but was kicked in the back, sending him flying through a wall. Ryouma approached Musashi, who was struggling to get up. Ryouma placed his hand on Musashi's forehead and took his soul. Musashi's body fell unconscious and Ryouma started back to the crossroads.

Meanwhile, Maasaki decided to stop walking and sit down, hoping to sense chakra to find his teammates. Ryouma's mud creatures then started coming from the ground.

"White Laser!" he yelled. The laser pierced through the mud creatures and cut them in half. "White Laser!" he yelled again, but the technique didn't work. "Crap, I must have run out of chakra," he thought in his head. "The shield technique must have drained most of my chakra." The mud creature approached him and punched him in the stomach. He fell to his knees from the horrible pain. The mud creatures were much stronger than they looked. He heard footsteps behind him. He struggled to get up and turn around, hoping it was Musashi or Reiko. It was Ryouma (big surprise). Maasaki fell down to the ground, face-down…

Reiko looked behind her and saw that Ryouma was no longer watching her. She heard a crash from the left. "Damn, I think he found Musashi," she thought. She ran to the right, hoping to find Maasaki. She tripped on a puddle of wet mud. As the stood up, she saw that a mud creature was hovering over her. She kicked its "face" away and yelled, "Wind Cutter!" The gust of wind ripped the mud creature in shreds. A group of mud creatures then formed from the ground. "Air Blade!" she yelled. The blade of wind sliced the creatures in half. She was then pulled back because someone was grabbing her hair.

"You're lucky I saved you for last." Reiko couldn't escape because of her hair holding back. She pulled out a kunai from her pocket and attempted to slice it off, but Ryouma struck her hand, sending the kunai flying a couple of feet away. Reiko elbowed Ryouma in the stomach, loosening his grip and pulled her head away from his hands causing many hairs to rip out.

"Wind Cutter!" yelled Reiko. The sharp wind sliced at Ryouma's face, pushing him back against a nearby wall. She rushed over to the kunai she dropped and threw it at his face. He deflected it with his hand and ran over to her, grabbing her by her neck and tossing her onto the ground. He then proceeded to steal her soul. Reiko's body was motionless as Ryouma walked away.

Meanwhile, at the secret base, two figures were standing at the top of a nearby building. "We've found their secret base," said one of them.

"Master Ryouma will be happy about this," said the other.


	7. A Dream about the Past

**7. A Dream about the Past **–

"What would happen if someone broke into the base?" asked Hayoto.

"There's an emergency exit," said Kakashi. He pointed to the door with the words "EMRGENCY EXIT" over it.

"Oh," replied Hayoto.

The two men on the building were preparing to infiltrate the base. One was tall and quite pale. He wore all white clothing. His partner was much shorter than him and had darker skin. He wore all black clothing. The pale one then said, "Kuro, should we go now? I saw that Ryouma has gotten rid of the three kids that left an hour ago. There should only be nine in there."

"We can handle them," Kuro replied. The two jumped off of the building onto the ground and walked towards the secret entrance of the base. "By the way, Shiro, don't die on me."

"I won't," replied Shiro. Shiro kicked the wall and the brick wall changed into a steel door. The steel door swung open and the two entered. "Hello little children," said Shiro.

Chouko immediately ran for the emergency exit holding the crystal tight in her arms. The others, instinctively, ran after her. The last two that tried to leave were Hayoto and Daichi, but Kuro said, "Magical Barrier." An invisible wall appeared before the exit and Hayoto ran in to it. He slammed his face into the wall and fell down. His ferret, Kasshoku prepared to attack the two intruders. Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Kakashi summoned his ice sword and struck the invisible barrier multiple times, but the wall didn't seem to get affected.

"Guys, just go without us!" yelled Hayoto.

"Yeah, we'll be fine," said Daichi.

Kakashi decided to respect their wishes and left with other six ninjas.

"Well, well, it looks like there are only two of you," said Shiro. "This should be easy." He then cracked his knuckles and pounded his fist into the ground, sending a crack along the floor. Daichi jumped up to avoid it. Meanwhile Kuro was constantly forming hand seals.

"Hayoto get up and help me!" yelled Daichi.

"Oh ok," replied Hayoto, "Kasshoku Drill!" Hayoto threw Kasshoku at Kuro to stop whatever technique he was trying to do. It struck him in the face, sending him flying into a wall.

"Lightning Release: Electric Current!" yelled Daichi. Lightning shot from the ground hitting Shiro causing him to get stunned. "Hurry Hayoto, we can team attack!" "Thunder Spark!" he yelled. Meanwhile, Hayoto was running towards Shiro to get closer and got hit by the thunder. "What was that!" yelled Daichi. "You were supposed to attack him, not get closer!"

"I was trying to get closer, I'm sorry," he said quietly as he attempted to stand up.

"You're so useless!" he yelled. He stopped talking. It reminded him of one of his worst memories of his life.

Kuro then finally was able to resume his stance and then finished his technique while Daichi was yelling at Hayoto. Daichi and Hayoto started to stumble. They fell to the ground and became unconscious.

"It's too bad that during my illusion technique, they can't be harmed," said Kuro. "If only I could use it on them, but that might cause permanent mental damage."

"How long will this last?" asked Shiro.

"A couple of minutes, if they don't commit suicide during the dream," he replied.

Hayoto woke up, in his house.

"Was everything that just happen only a dream?" he asked himself. "No it can't be. It was too real." He got off of his bed and ran down the stairs. "Kaa-san! Tou-san!"

His calls had no replies. Hayoto continued exploring the house and he realized that it wasn't his house in the Cupcake Village, it was his home from the Bear Village. He couldn't find anyone so he ran outside the house and saw his parents…and himself five years ago. It was the worst memory of his life. It was when his original village was destroyed forcing his family to move the Cupcake Village. The village was ironically attacked by bears, but these weren't normal bears. They were mutated as a result of scientific experiment done by the village to use as weapons of war. This backfired on them, their quest for power ended up becoming the village's demise. The bears attacked and destroyed everything. They were the reason his brother died. He always fought with his brother, but realized that he cared for his brother after his death. The scene changed. He was now in front of his current home in the Cupcake Village. His parents had a couple of boxes of items that weren't destroyed. He remembered that that was the reason he was afraid to like a place because he was afraid he was going to lose it again, like he lost his brother and his home. The horrible memories were flooding back, but then remembered about the friends he made because of his move.

He tried to relax and think positive. He couldn't change the past, he could only move forward. These thoughts comforted him and he closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he was looking at the ceiling of the secret base.

Daichi woke up and saw himself, sprawled on the floor, bloodied and bruised. His eyes wet with tears yet stayed in his eyes as if they were too scared to come out. His father had beaten him nearly to death again. His parents found out that Daichi couldn't transform perfectly into his teacher. He slowly tried to sit up, finding it useless. He lied there resting his face on the cold, wooden floor. The cold floor felt nice against his bruised cheek. Laying there his mind went blank with the voice of his parents echoing themselves.

"You're so useless!" yelled his mother.

"Why can't you do anything right!?" his father asked him. Bitter words haunted him. No matter what Daichi did his parents never seemed satisfied with him. Daichi lifted himself up a bit, crawling over to the window. Heavy curtains shield the light from his dark life. He looked through the small opening, looking outside. He couldn't see why his life was so much different to everyone else. He couldn't understand... Why was everyone else happier than him? Why was he supposed to suffer? Why?! He slammed his fist into the wall next to the window tearing up.

"It's not fair... It's not fair," he cried. He hated his life. The bitter love his parents gave him. He wanted to forget all of this... everything he hated... all of it. This was the reason for his fake smile. He only smiled hoping that no one would suspect his parent's abuse. His parent's would kill him for that. One day, his aunt and uncle came to visit and saw his parents beating him. His mom saw that they witnessed it, so she attempted to kill him, but his aunt jumped in the way and was stabbed in the arm. This event opened his eyes and showed him that people cared for him. He was taken away from his parents and lived with his aunt and uncle. This caused his life to become happy. He suddenly remembered that it was a dream. Everything turned to black and when he opened his eyes, he saw the ceiling of the base. He looked over and saw that Hayoto had awoken too.

"What?!" yelled Kuro. "It's only been a couple of minutes! How did you two awaken?"

"We thought about the good things in our life," said Hayoto.

"The memories are in our past and the only thing we can do about them is to forget," Daichi said.

"Well it doesn't matter now since we're going to kill you two," said Shiro. Shiro and Kuro both pulled kunai from the pockets on their legs. They rushed towards the two sitting ninjas.

Daichi and Hayoto both stood up and jumped out of the way. Then Hayoto said, "Earth Release: Dust Storm!" Hayoto placed his hand on the floor of the base and dust arose from the ground blowing in all directions. The dust blinded Shiro and Kuro causing them to stop their attack. "Remember the formation Iruka taught us that needed the best of teamwork to work?" Hayoto asked Daichi.

"Yeah," he replied. "I'll take Shiro, you take Kuro.

"Okay," he replied. "Hey Kuro!" yelled Hayoto. "I'm over here!" He waved his hands in the air as the dust continued to blow.

"Hey Shiro!" yelled Daichi as he was standing with his back touching Hayoto's back. "Come get me over here!"

Shiro and Kuro saw the two and both rushed towards them with their kunais facing forwards, ready to attack.

"One!" yelled Hayoto.

"Two!" yelled Daichi.

"Three!" they yelled simultaneously. They both jumped up and since the dust was affecting Shiro's and Kuro's eyesight, they both thought the other was their target and both stabbed each other in the heart. Kuro's smirked when he felt blood run down his hand. He put his body weight into pushing the kunai more into his enemy's body. When the body he stabbed hunched over, Kuro finally realized the blood running down his hand. Shiro's blonde hair gently brushed his hand, staining itself. Kuro's eyes went dilated; his hands shook as he held his partner up. Shiro violently began coughing up blood.

"I... I'm..." The words Kuro wanted to say couldn't come out. Shiro smiled softly as blood continuously spewed out of him.

"It's... alright..." Shiro managed to say as he stood up. Shiro wrapped his arms around Kuro, resting his cheek on his hair. Shiro began making hand seals stopping before the last one. "Let's go together," he whispered softly to Kuro. Kuro nodded burying his head into Shiro's chest.

"Yes... Let's go together," Kuro whispered back. Shiro smiled again and they entwined their hands for their final goodbye.

"Good-bye," said Shiro.

"Good-bye," said Kuro. "I hope I see you on the other side."

"Um…are they…?" Hayoto asked.

"I think so," replied Daichi.

They sat down from exhaustion only to hear the breathing of someone behind them. The two turned their heads and saw Ryouma looking at them.

"Hello," he said.

They ran towards the emergency exit, but they tripped on a puddle of mud. Ryouma placed his hands on their foreheads, taking their souls. He put them in the jar where all of the souls he collected were. Ryouma walked by the bodies of Shiro and Kuro and kicked their bodies. "You guys are useless," he said to the dead corpses.


	8. Sacrifice

**8. Sacrifice **-

The remaining seven ninjas were running down the path desperately trying to find an exit, thinking the two intruders were trying to catch up to them. They didn't know that Ryouma was the one that was trying to find them. Their surroundings were mostly crates, so it was most likely that this was the Fruit ninja's storage area. The seven thought the barrier was still there, not expecting Hayoto and Daichi to win, so they decided to only proceed in the opposite direction. After a half-hour of running, the seven came up to a giant door, with three platforms in front of it. On the sign it said, "If three people were to stand on these platforms, one per platform, this door would be locked. Once the three steps off, for whatever amount of time they stayed on the platforms, the door would remain locked. Don't trick the platforms by putting objects replications on them. The platforms will know.

"We could do this to stall the two people who are chasing us," suggested Genta.

"But, who would stay," Jin replied.

"I'll stay!" Marumi said cheerfully.

"I guess me and Genta should stay too," Jin said.

"Kakashi, Shizu, Tetsuma, Chouko," said Genta. "You guys have to hurry up and get past that door. "We will stall."

"But what if you guys die?" asked Shizu.

"We won't," replied Marumi.

"Trust us," said Jin.

"Now go," said Genta. He opened the giant door and shoved them through it. He, Jin, and Marumi quickly stepped on the platforms, locking the door.

Kakashi pounded on the door. "Hey, open up!" he yelled. "We can't leave you guys there."

"Yes, you can!" yelled Marumi back. "Now hurry up and go!"

Kakashi gave up, again, and the four of them started to run along the only path they could.

Ryouma was running down the narrow path that the seven ninjas were previously running down.

Back at the giant door, Jin asked, "You do know we most likely won't get out of this alive?"

"Yeah, we know," said Genta. "But it's pointless for all of us to…" He didn't want to say what would mostly happen to them.

"Well, we have to make the most out of our final moments!" yelled Marumi cheerfully with a smile.

"In case we don't make it out alive, I have to give you guys this," said Genta sadly. He hugged each of them.

Jin only received the hug. Once Genta let go, Jin started staring at the ground. Marumi returned the hug, and was trying to act optimistic about their hopeless situation.

Ten minutes passed and no one had come.

"Do you think we should step off of the platforms so we could have a chance of surviving?" asked Jin.

"I guess we should," replied Genta. "It seems that he isn't coming."

"But what if he is?" asked Marumi. "We've only been here for ten minutes, so if we get off now, he might be able to catch up to them."

The three didn't know that Ryouma had caught up to them and was reading the sign as they spoke. "So these three stayed behind to save their friends," he thought in his head. "They're idiots." That girl said that it's been ten minutes so I need to lure them off the platforms."

A puff of smoke appeared in front of them and when the smoke disappeared, they saw Ryouma. Out of instinct, Jin threw a kunai at Ryouma, which made his jump a couple of feet away to dodge. "Run!" he said. "I will handle him."

Genta and Marumi were about to stay, but quickly remembered that they would die if they stayed on the platforms any longer, so they might as well leave, but before Marumi left, she ran over to Jin and grabbed him by his hand, pulling him along with her. The three ran as quickly as they could, but Ryouma was too fast. He was catching up rapidly.

"Split up," said Genta. "That's the only way we can stall long enough for at least one of us to make it back to the door and escape."

Jin and Marumi nodded as they reached a crossroad created by the crates. They all took a different direction. Ryouma caught up to the crossroad and took the path Jin took.

Jin kept running down his path, until he saw that it was a dead end.

"Crap!" he said as he stopped running.

Behind him was Ryouma. Jin jumped onto one of the crates and said, "Triple Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He created three clones that all jumped off the crate to the other side, placing them out of Ryouma's view. He followed and couldn't remember which Jin was the real one. He summoned mud creatures that attacked the clones. As they approached the three clones, Ryouma realized there was only three. From behind him, Jin appeared out of nowhere.

"What!" yelled Ryouma. He jumped up, but Jin managed to slash his leg with a kunai. Ryouma landed on top of a crate, clenching his wound that was dripping blood.

"My invisibility technique is really useful," Jin said. The technique is a Jonin level rank technique, showing Jin's skill.

Jin's clones were destroyed and he was grabbed by the arms by a mud creature, and Ryouma jumped down from the crates.

"You bastard, you hurt my leg!" yelled Ryouma to Jin's face. "You're going to be the only one to get killed." Ryouma pulled a kunai out, preparing to stab Jin in the face, when a voice said, "Confusion Mist!" a mist appeared out of nowhere and consumed Ryouma, Jin, and the mud creatures in side the smoke-like mist. Ryouma and Jin started to fell dizzy and Marumi jumped into the mist, pulling Jin out of the mud creatures' hands and pulled him with her again, since he was still dizzy from the mist.

They stopped after ten minutes of running. The two looked at their watches realizing the door was open now.

"The door's open," said Jin.

"I hope we find Genta there," said Marumi.

Marumi started walking in the opposite direction of the door.

"Marumi, why are you walking that way?" asked Jin. "It's the other way. I memorized the path we took."

"Oh, I knew that," she said. A sweat drop formed on the back of her head.

She started walking in that direction, but Jin was hit by something, sending him flying into some other crates. Ryouma appeared out of nowhere, since he had used an invisibility technique, and placed his hand on Jin's forehead as Jin was struggling to get up. He fell back down to the ground.

Marumi was still wondering, thinking Jin was also running close behind her, but her pants were caught on the edge of a crate.

"Damn these super long boy pants!" she yelled. "I'm never wearing these again!"

She pulled hard on the pants, ripping off a small portion of them, sending her falling onto the ground. She stood up and brushed the dust off her clothes, only to see that her head was level with Ryouma's neck, since he was standing right in front of her. She fell back onto the ground.

Genta was spying a couple of feet away and saw that Ryouma put Jin's and Marumi's into a jar. "If the souls are in a jar, that means that they can still be alive if their bodies and souls are still intact," thought Genta. "I have to go save their bodies."

"Falling Fist!!" yelled Genta as he jumped from the air and hit Ryouma with the resulting shockwave.

Ryouma was sent flying into a nearby crate and Genta grabbed his teammates' bodies. He flung Jin over his left shoulder and Marumi over his right shoulder and ran as fast as he could. He made it out of Ryouma's sight and laid their bodies inside a circle created by crates. He then attempted to fight Ryouma.

"Roaring Fist!" yelled Genta, punching Ryouma into the nearby crates, but Genta was then grabbed by mud creatures who managed to restrain him from moving. Ryouma got up and went over to Genta. He performed the soul extraction technique causing Genta's body to fall limp. The mud creatures released him and Genta's body hit the ground with a dull thud.

"Fine I'll kill you as well as that brat," said Ryouma to a soulless Genta. Ryouma took out a kunai and lifted his hand up to strike.

"Ice Slash!" yelled Kakashi striking Ryouma's hand and sending the kunai flying into the air.

"Eagle!" yelled Tetsuma, creating an eagle that pecked at Ryouma.

Shizu and Chouko entered the scene.

"We've finally caught up to you two," said Chouko.

"Genta!" yelled Shizu at Genta's body.

"So that's you little friend's name," said Ryouma. "All of your friends tried fighting me but couldn't do shit; so what makes you think you're going to win?"

"Nothing," replied Kakashi. "But that doesn't mean we won't."


	9. The Final Showdown

**9. The Final Showdown –**

Kakashi ran at Ryouma with his hand covered with jagged ice and struck at Ryouma's head, but Ryouma pulled out a kunai and parried the attack. Kakashi fell backwards and said, "Ice Blade Release!" he yelled. The ice on his hand disappeared and a sword made of ice appeared. Kakashi gripped the sword and rushed towards and was deflected by Ryouma's kunai again. "Attack now everyone!" he yelled.

"Aqua Burst!" yelled Shizu. She threw an orb of water at Ryouma, hitting him in the chest, winding him.

"Flamingo!" yelled Tetsuma. His flamingo flew towards Ryouma and used its solar wind technique right in front of his face sending him flying into the nearby crates.

"Sai!" yelled Chouko as Ryouma struggled to stand up. She threw the two sai that she created with her notebook at Ryouma and it hit in his shoulder.

"You guys suck," he said. Chouko's sai had hit his shoulders and had pinned his shirt to a crate, but only hit the very top of his clothes, not hurting him at all. He laughed and tugged on his shirt, ripping off some cloth and leaving the sai stuck on the crate. "All those attacks barely scratched me," he told them.

"Kakashi catch this!" Chouko yelled. She threw the crystal at Kakashi and he dropped his ice blade on the ground and caught the crystal. "Now you, Shizu, and Tetsuma, run and try to find an exit! I will deal with him!"

"No!" yelled Kakashi. "We can't keep sacrificing people! We need to stay together!"

Ryouma rushed towards Chouko and kicked her into a pile of nearby crates and punched Kakashi away. Ryouma approached Chouko, who was lying on the ground, and started performing the hand seals of his soul extraction technique.

"So this is one of my last moments," thought Chouko. One of her past memories started to run through her head. It was when she and Tetsuma were eight years old and it was Christmas time. Tetsuma was very competitive and would always challenge her (they are siblings, fraternal twin siblings, and Chouko is five minutes older) to little competitions such as racing around a building or rock-paper-scissors. Tetsuma was a horrible loser and had a phobia of failure. On Christmas Eve, she was wrapping his present at her desk, next to her old notebook, and when Tetsuma saw her wrapping, he said, "Who's it for?"

"For you," she relied.

"I don't want a present," he replied.

"Why?!?!" she questioned.

"I don't want one," he said.

He then left the room and when she came out of her room, he challenged her to a rock-paper-scissors match, so she put his present on a nearby desk. He did rock, she did paper, causing him to lose.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" yelled Tetsuma. "DID YOU CHEAT?!?!"

"No," replied Chouko as she picked up her present.

"Here," she said as she put her hands out holding the present. "You can open it early. Merry Christmas."

"No, I won't take it!" he yelled.

Chouko shoved the present into his arms and walked back into her room. She quickly turned the lock on her door. Tetsuma ran over to the door and started knocking and yelling, "Open up! I don't want the present!"

"Then throw it away!" she yelled back at him.

He tried to shove it underneath the door, but it wouldn't fit.

Tetsuma then gave up and decided to open the present, wondering what she decided to give him. It was a black notebook with a flamingo on the front cover. He opened it and on the back of the front cover, it read: "I found this notebook at the store a week ago, and since you like flamingos so much, I decided to buy it for you to replace your old, ripped notebook that you use for you chakra art. There's also a pencil stuck in the spine of the book."

Chouko then decided to open the door and saw Tetsuma sitting in a chair holding the notebook in his hands.

"Sorry," he said with a feeling of guilt in his voice.

"It's okay," she replied.

The memory ended and Chouko lost her soul.

"Chouko!" yelled Tetsuma. "Eagle!" he yelled, sending an eagle flying across the room hitting Ryouma in the stomach. He ran towards Ryouma and kicked him in the chest, blowing him a couple of feet away. Tetsuma ran over to Chouko's body and shook her, in hopes that she was still alive, but she wasn't. She didn't wake up no matter what he did.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Shizu were trying to fight Ryouma. Kakashi was constantly attacking with his ice sword, while holding the crystal in his left hand, but Ryouma kept blocking with kunai.

"Water Flow!" Shizu yelled causing water to be released out of her hands and hit Ryouma's face. This gave Kakashi a chance and he slashed at Ryouma's stomach, causing a large cut in his armor.

"You…" said Ryouma. He struck Kakashi and Shizu both in the chest with the palm of his hands and performed some hand seals. He placed his palms on the ground and mud creatures rose. They started swarming Kakashi and Shizu, surrounding them. With the other two preoccupied, he walked towards Tetsuma who was standing above Chouko.

"I will deal with you later," he said. "I want to get that kid's soul over there."

Some mud creatures started to attack Tetsuma and they managed to pin his arms and legs to a nearby crate. He couldn't move because of the creatures' strong hold on him and he knew that it was over.

Throughout his mind, he thought of the same memory that Chouko thought of.

"Sorry," he said with a feeling of guilt in his voice.

"It's okay," said Chouko.

Tetsuma remembered that he felt really bad about how he had treated his sister after she took a lot of time trying to find a good present for him. He wanted to make it up to her. Chouko returned to her room, leaving the door, unlocked this time. Tetsuma, on the other hand, ran off, hoping to find a store where he could buy a present for her for Christmas. He was walking thought the streets when he saw a sign for a store. "Large Wonders" was the words on the sign so he went into the store. As he browsed the aisles, he started to remember why he didn't want the present she bought him. He never liked gift giving holidays. He always thought that they made people feel obliged to give a friend a present, when they might not really want to and buying a present from a store doesn't show much thought. It just shows they took a couple of minutes of their time in a store to buy something, but he told himself that he was going to take longer than a couple of minutes.

He then found an aisle full of notebooks of all different colors. Large Wonders was having a special event where there were hundreds of different types of notebooks. They were all in shelves, and he pulled one off the shelf to see that there was a notebook with a different picture on the cover. He did this to many of the notebooks, to find that there was a different notebook behind the one he removed. A lady who ran the store then walked towards him.

"Do you need any help," she asked. "Are you looking for a certain type of notebook?"

"No, it's okay," he replied.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "We have many notebooks that could have something different on the cover and you may never find the one you're looking for since we only have two copies of a notebook with a certain symbol on the cover. I remember a girl that was her a week ago who spent an hour trying to find a notebook."

"What notebook did she buy?" he asked.

"A flamingo," the lady replied.

"Oh," he said. Now he felt even worse. "I don't need any help."

The lady left. He knew that he had to find a notebook that Chouko would really want now to replace her old notebook. He spent the next hour searching though the notebooks and finally he found a white notebook, the one he had been looking for. He bought it and carried it back to his house. He found a roll of wrapping paper and quickly wrapped the present. He then knocked on Chouko's door.

"Yes?" she said as she opened the door.

"Here," he said. "Open it now."

Chouko carefully unwrapped the present and saw that it was another flamingo notebook.

"You found the other flamingo notebook?" she asked. "You dug through the hundreds of notebooks?"

"Yeah," Tetsuma replied.

Back in reality, Ryouma was removing his hand from Tetsuma's forehead. He placed the soul in his jar. Kakashi and Shizu then finally managed to destroy all of the mud creatures.

"Mud Chains" said Ryouma. Chains made of mud appeared out of the ground and chained themselves to Kakashi's wrists and ankles. The chains moved backwards, moving him ten feet away from Shizu. He dropped his sword.

"Damn it!" yelled Kakashi. "Shizu, hurry up and run!"

"No I'm not leaving!" she yelled back.

"At least take the crystal," he said.

Shizu ran towards Kakashi and grabbed the crystal from his hand and put it in his pocket, hoping Ryouma would think she would have it. She pulled out a kunai and tried to break the chain, but the chains wouldn't break.

Ryouma grabbed Shizu by the neck using one of his hands, and started to slowly tighten his grip on her throat. Shizu attempted to stab him with her kunai, but more of his mud chains came out from the ground and attached themselves to her wrists and ankles. She started to feel dizzy. She started to remember about her childhood like how she moved around a lot and on her first day of ninja school in the Cupcake Village. She sat in the seat behind Kakashi. On her whole first day, she was quiet and never talked. The first day was pretty quiet. All the class was taught was how to transform into someone else. All of the students had a turn in transforming into their teacher, Iruka. All of them succeeded. Last up was Shizu.

"Henge," she said quietly. A poof of smoke appeared, but nothing happened. One of the kids started to laugh. It was Musashi.

Kakashi, who sat next to Musashi, pointed to the top of Musashi's hair and then said, "Look Musashi, there's a ladybug!"

"WHAT!" yelled Musashi. "WHERE! OH MY GOD! WHERE!"

The class stopped looking at Shizu and started to laugh at Musashi panicking.

Ryouma loosened his grip on Shizu's neck, but she still fell unconscious and the chains disappeared. Ryouma prepared to steal her soul, but she opened her eyes and kicked Ryouma in the face. The chains restraining Kakashi broke, due to Ryouma's concentration being broken, letting him fall to the ground. Ryouma then kicked Shizu in her stomach, causing her to flinch from pain. As she struggled to get up, Ryouma managed to perform his soul extraction technique on Shizu. He placed her soul in his jar.

"Only one of you left," said Ryouma. "She thought she could trick me by hiding the crystal in your pocket, but I'm smarter than that. I can sense the crystal's energy. So give it to me. If you give it, I might spare you."

"No, it's ok," Kakashi replied. "I have to get that jar of souls," Kakashi thought to himself. "Ice Release: Frozen Breeze!" he yelled. Out of Kakashi's hand, came an extremely cold wind that went in the direction of Ryouma. Ryouma put his hand up to shield himself, causing him to not see Kakashi rush towards him and grab the jar.

"YES!" yelled Kakashi as he ran away, but he then tripped on a crack in the ground…

…………………………………………………………….

The jar fell to the floor and the hundreds of souls Ryouma stole started to flood out, returning to their real bodies. Shizu, Tetsuma, Chouko, Genta, Marumi, and Jin (the other five ninjas all lost their souls much farther away from the scene of this battle), all who ran towards Kakashi, who was facing Ryouma. Ryouma managed to stand up and was extremely angry.

"You little !" he screamed at them. "All of my souls are gone! I'm going to kill you little !"

"Let's start running," said Kakashi. The seven ninjas ran towards the light they saw leak through a half-closed door. Kakashi pushed the door open and light flooded in. They were outside, and in front of the entrance to the secret base. Musashi, Maasaki, Reiko, Daichi, and Hayoto ran towards them.

Ryouma came out of the door, and still looked angry.

"I'm tired of this!" he yelled. "I'm going to kill all you at once! Mud Cage!" Mud started raising from the ground and created an orb around the twelve ninjas

"Energy Cutter!" yelled Shin. The technique sliced Ryouma's body in half, horizontally. The mud stopped surrounding the ninjas and started to disappear. "Are you guys okay?" asked Shin.

"We're fine," replied Tetsuma.

Meanwhile, the nine shadowed figures were still standing outside of the village.

"Ryouma has died," said Kami.

Two more shadowed figures appeared.

"We have found a new person to replace Ryouma," said the man that just appeared.

"He comes from the Cupcake Village," said the other man who just appeared.

The next day…

The twelve ninjas were standing in front of Ryouma's coffin, and each placed a flower on next to it.

"Even though Ryouma was not a good person, he still deserves a funeral," said Shin to the twelve ninjas. "And thank for finding the crystal and keeping it safe Chouko."

"Thank you, but all of us helped protect it," she replied.

"We Fruit ninjas will be sure to protect the crystal and keep it safe this time," said Shin.

The twelve ninjas then decided it was time to leave.

"I will see you guys soon!" he yelled as the twelve left the village.

At the entrance to the forest, Shizu suddenly said, "We forgot the golden fruit. Should we go back?"

Kakashi looked back on the gate, which was 10 feet away from him. "It looks too far," he said. The other eleven stared at him. "Fine, I'll go get it," Kakashi said. "It's a good thing the Kinomikage ("Kinomi" means fruit/nut/seed") decided to remove the seal on the gate, so I don't have to go through the challenges."

Twenty minutes later…

"They had to find the golden fruit so it took a while," said Kakashi.

The twelve of them walked into the forest, with the sun rising behind them. The mission might be over, but their journey has just started.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**Note: This ends the first arc of the story.**


	10. The Arrival of the Four Jonin Leaders

**10. The Arrival of the Four Jonin Leaders –**

The twelve ninjas arrived back at their village an hour after they departed from the Fruit Village. They rushed back to the entrance of their school and showed Iruka the golden apple they received.

"I heard the news," said Iruka with a large smile. "You guys saved the village from Ryouma!"

The twelve started to tell her the story of how everything happened, and the reason it took so long. In the end, Iruka placed the golden apple on a shelf next to his desk, showing it off like a trophy.

"You all have had enough for now," Iruka said. "Go home and rest and come back here about noon. I have a surprise."

The twelve left with tired expressions. Iruka then sat back in his desk in the darkness. Four figures with Cupcake headbands on their foreheads appeared out of the darkness.

"So those were the ninjas we've been assigned," said a man. "They look weak."

"You shouldn't say that!" yelled another voice.

"Here are the folders of the ninjas you have been assigned," said Iruka. "They're my evaluations. You should read through them and they are not weak. As Jonins, you should know that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover." He handed each person three folders and left the room. The four each took their folders and returned to their homes.

The first Jonin was Atsuya Kyuuka. He often wore green vest over a red shirt with a flame in the center and had explosive tags on his shoulders. He also wore fingerless gloves that matched his shirt and had spiky crimson hair that grew forward and slightly curved downward. At home, he lied back down on his bed and opened the first folder belonging to Kakashi Itonami.

Kakashi's showed him wearing a plain white shirt with a dark blue shirt's collar showing on the outside. He had large, spiky hair that was naturally that way. He wore his headband around his right shoulder. The information read: Kakashi is good student that can't talk in front of the class, but can talk fine in the middle of it. He is incredibly clumsy and lacks confidence, but is still one of the better ninjas.

The second folder he opened belonged to Shizu Seijou. Shizu's picture showed her in her usual clothing. She wore a light blue jacket over a white shirt underneath. She normally let her black hair grow to at about her neck and wore her headband on her waist by having it hanging out of her right pocket. The information read: Shizu is a hard worker when it's something she is greatly interested in, but can be very lazy in things she finds uninteresting. She also has an obsession over pretty Asian men and has pictures of them all over the outside and inside her binders.

The last folder belonged to Tetsuma Ayuta. Tetsuma's picture showed him wearing a black vest that turned darker at the collar. Underneath was a gray, long-sleeved shirt, while he has his headband around his left shoulder. He had his dark hair somewhat messy since he never combed it. The information read: Tetsuma is a perfectionist, partly due to the fact that he is a genius, and is extremely afraid of failure. He also lacks trust in his teammates. For some reason, he hates gift-giving holidays. He is one of the fastest runners I have ever seen.

The second Jonin was Tadohiro Aki. He often wore the same green vest as Atsuya, since it was required, but had a green shirt underneath that has a picture of a leaf on it. He had light brown hair tinted lightly in a soft orange. His bangs slightly covered one eye and his hair was spiky at the end. He was sitting at his desk and next to him, on the ground, was his three puppets. Their names were Ta, Do, and Hiro. They were all similar looking humanoid-like puppets, but all had their differences. Ta had six eyes, Da had six arms, and Hiro had six horns. His paled green eyes gazed lightly over the first folder he grabbed. It belonged to Musashi Shinmiri.

Musashi's picture showed him wearing a black, long-sleeved sweater with the number 81 on the front. He has his headband around his right wrist. He had messy, dark hair that often covered his forehead and sometimes went into his eyes. The information said: Musashi is a sarcastic person that sometimes comes off as being mean, when he really isn't. He's the talkative one out of the Musashi-Maasaki duo. He also has shiny fingernails that Shizu likes to make fun of, since they look like there is clear nail gloss.

The second folder belonged to Maasaki Nagoyaka. Maasaki's picture showed him with his dark glasses covering his eyes and with his dark hair spiked up in the front. He wore a gray jacket over his black shirt and had often wore long black pants all of the time. He had his headband on his left wrist. The information read: Maasaki barely talks, mostly because he is thinking all of the time, unless he has something important and there weren't many important things to say in my class. He is the second half of the Musashi-Maasaki duo.

The last folder belonged to Reiko Kanashimi. Reiko's picture showed her in a dark purple jacket that covered a lighter purple shirt underneath. She normally let her hair grow out long, sometimes to her waist and wore the headband on the back of her hair. The information read: Reiko was always a quiet girl like Maasaki, but does laugh often. I assumed that Maasaki rubbed off on her since they go to the same orphanage. She gets the things she needs to do done quickly, but rushing is not always a good thing.

The third Jonin was Chisato Fuyu. She lifted her headband from her face a bit. Chisato released her dark blue hair from the confinements of the thin ribbon. She wore an oriental-like outfit that had a snowflake charm to the left, near her neck. She smoothed her skirt under her before looking through the folders. She slowly opened her eyes, revealing cold sapphire eyes, allowing them to register to the light. She opened the first folder and it belonged to Hayoto Yukai.

Hayoto's picture showed him with his short black hair with his ferret, Kasshoku on the top of his head. His headband was on his forehead, and his long bands sometimes covered it. He wore a jacket that had varying shades of blue on it and wore a black shirt underneath. The information read: Hayoto is one of the nicest people you will ever meet in your lifetime, even though he had his life messed up when his brother died and he had to move to the Cupcake village. He works hard and never insults anyone unless you insult his friends. One of the few good people left in the world.

The second folder belonged to Daichi Souzoushii. Daichi's picture showed him wearing his brown jacket with yellow lightning bolts on each side of the jacket. He had messy black hair that stood up since it was spiky. He also had his headband on his forehead, just like Hayoto. The information read: Daichi is a good person, but he talks all of the time. He looks happy nearly all of the time, but he also has a broken childhood, like many of his classmates. He was abused as a child, but he still managed to put on a fake smile at school. It's a good thing that he now stays with his aunt and uncle.

The last folder belonged to Chouko Ayuta. Chouko's picture showed her wearing a black-bluish colored jacket with a large black collar. She had her hair short at the time of the picture, but sometimes grows it long depending on her mood. Her headband was on her forehead, underneath her long bangs. The information read: Chouko, like her brother, is also a genius. Those two are some of the smartest people I have ever met. She works hard and is always prepared to answer my questions in class. She is a caring person who will always help those in need, unless it's in the morning since she's not a morning person.

The fourth Jonin was Tatsumi Haru. When she arrived, home, she opened the door to her sister's room. She noticed that she was still sleeping so she decided not to disturb her. Tatsumi went to her room. She lied on her bed and moved her long pink hair that was somewhat covering her eyes and fixed the pink daisy in her hair. She started at a picture frame that was on the dresser next to her bed. The picture inside was of her husband, Shinji Haru, who went missing on a mission. She was wearing a pink short-sleeved shirt and a magenta-colored skirt. She picked up the first folder of the pile. It belonged to Genta Kigurou.

Genta's picture showed Genta wearing his black jacket that had red and blue stripes on the sleeves and shoulders. He had short brown hair and had his headband on his forehead. His pants were really long and scrunched up at his ankles. The information read: Genta is a good person that likes adorable things. He will help anything in need, but doesn't know when he is pissing someone off.

Tatsumi picked up the second folder and her hazel eyes noticed the name.

"Marumi Akarui!" she yelled. It was her sister. "This is great. Now I have to put up with her outside of home too." She was angry, but decided to read the folder anyway.

The picture showed Marumi wearing her green sweater that said "BLUE" on it. Her brownish-orange hair reached her neck and around her neck was her headband. She often wore blue guy jeans. The information read: Marumi is an extremely happy and optimistic person that is also incredibly generous. She is often perky and energetic. Marumi also has a sippy cup that I used to make fun of, but now I don't because she might kill me.

Tatsumi put down her sister's folder and picked up the last one. It belonged to Jin Mijikai. His picture showed him with his brownish-blond hair covering his eyes and wearing his brown shirt with the word "JAM" on it. He had his headband underneath his bangs, on his forehead. The information read: Jin is a smart person, but he is really lazy. He tries to make things right, but this characteristic can come off as bossy, but he has good intentions.

The four Jonins all closed their folders and the same thought went through their heads. "This is going to be interesting."


	11. The Four Tests of Skill

**11. The Four Tests of Skill -**

The four teams stood in front of their school waiting for the jounins to appear. Tired and hungry, all twelve Genins waited for their Jonins. It was already close to ten in the morning. They've been waiting since eight. Shizu sighed loudly as she rested her head against the wall.

"I still can't believe I got up that earlier for this," she complained to her team and the others.

"Relax Shizu, our Jonins are bound to come soon anyways," replied Kakashi calmly, unfazed by how earlier it was.

"No! I don't want to. I'm losing valuable sleep right now. I should still be in bed for another two hours!" Shizu cried exasperatedly. Genta laughed at Shizu. She was being normal even though the incident in the Village Hidden in the Fruit wasn't so long ago...

"I'm truly amazed at how stupid you are..." Musashi commented. Shizu ignored his insult. Kakashi just sighed as he sat there with his head in his hands.

"Someone's coming!" Hayoto said brightly. Shizu stared at him in disbelief.

"I can't believe someone like you exist," she muttered as she closed her eyes, ready to sleep.

"HELLO!!!! WHERE IS MY ADORABLE TEAM ONE!?" screamed the most annoying voice any of them has ever heard. Shizu felt like crying as her two teammates stepped forward to greet their Jonin.

"NOOOO!!!," she yelled into Kakashi's ears. "WHY?!?!" Tears streamed down her face.

"I am Atsuya Kyuuka! I will be your Jonin! Now! Follow me!"

Shizu wiped her face and followed, grudgingly.

He shouted pointing to the sky and then the direction he came from. Kakashi and Tetsuma followed after him with a reluctant Shizu shuffling behind. They stopped in front of a river. "ALRIGHTY! We're gonna take a little test! And let's make things straight here... I'm not your friend okay? So don't take me lightly alright?" Atsuya gave them a toothy grin as he backed up closer to the path that had led them there. A quick flash quickly passed by and an "oomph" was heard. Shizu fell down onto the ground hard on her butt while Kakashi held out a kunai. Tetsuma was faced down on the ground with Atsuya's foot on his head and his arms tied together. Atsuya's stupid grin disappeared into a wicked smirk, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Shizu... I want you to kill Kakashi... Or Tetsuma dies." Shizu crawled backwards toward the river, shaking. "Go on kill him already... Kill him!" Atsuya shouted at her smashing Tetsuma's head more into the ground. "HURRY!" Shizu cried when she heard Tetsuma shout in pain. Atsuya smirked even more. "She has the weakest emotional strength in this group... I'm not surprised how she's reacting..." Atsuya thought to himself. Kakashi glared at Atsuya when he noticed the joy he was having seeing Shizu having trouble. Without thinking Kakashi quickly threw the kunai he pulled out earlier at Atsuya. Atsuya's smirk turned back to his stupid grin. He held Kakashi's kunai between his index and middle finger before throwing it back at Kakashi. Kakashi jumped out of the way, but then shielded his face as the kunai exploded once it touched the ground. Kakashi hopped back a few times having a good distant from Atsuya. Tetsuma tried getting up only to be stomped on even harder. Tetsuma grunted while Atsuya quickly threw kunai at Kakashi. Kakashi dodged those, but didn't know the explosive tags that hid in the shadows of the kunai. Kakashi didn't have time to react and shielded himself waiting for them to explode. When nothing came he opened his eye a bit. A watery shield was slowly dissolving onto the ground with the notes hissing softly as the burned out. Atsuya glanced lightly back to Shizu who was standing knee deep in the river.

"Thanks Shizu!" said Kakashi gratefully. (He wasn't gonna suffer from having scorched hair :D ahem... XD). Shizu smiled lightly at him before she glared at Atsuya. Shizu quickly started hand seals as the river water began to rise behind her. Before she could finish the last seal, Atsuya took his foot off of Tetsuma and unbind his arms. He walked toward the path they came from a bit before turning around. He threw confetti up into the sky before putting on a stupid grin.

"You all... PASS!" There was silent. "WHOO!! YAY!! ALRIGHT! Oh come on you guys. You're as boring as Chi-chan," complained Atsuya when there weren't any looks of joy. "Whatever. Screw you guys too. I'm gonna go home... I'll fill you guys later what we're gonna do tomorrow." Atsuya pulled out a magazine from his pocket which was magical because the magazine was obviously bigger than the pocket. Tetsuma glared at Atsuya's back noticing what magazine he had... Tetsuma's face fell into disgust before he pointed an accusing finger.

"PERVERT!!!" he screamed at him.

Atsuya turned around with an innocent look as if there was nothing wrong with looking at a dirty magazine. Shizu looked over at Atsuya and saw the magazine. It read, "Our Dirty Secrets" with a lady in a skimpy bikini on the cover winking. Shizu's face fell into disgust as well and pointed an accusing finger at him while the other hand started forming a water sphere. Kakashi too had noticed the dirty magazine. Shizu threw the ball at Atsuya as he began to run away with the three Genin following close behind screaming pervert.

Teams two, three, and four looked up when the saw a smoke of dust come by with shouts of pervert.

It was silent for a while till a mysterious looking Jonin appeared out of no where. Something was clinging to his back that was wrapped up in a black cloth. His pale green eyes quickly gazed over the nine Genins that stood and sat before him. He saw his students and stared at them for a while.

He stared at team 2. "I'm going to be your Jonin... Now follow me," he said in a calm tone before walking off. He abruptly stopped when a giant cloud of dust came running by. He looked straight annoyed by the person in front of the cloud. It was Atsuya Kyuuka... It quickly passed by him. He then continued his walk.

"That dust cloud sounded like Kakashi, Shizu, and Tetsuma," noted Marumi idly. Team two quickly followed after their Jonin. They stopped at the outskirts of the village where their Jonin took off the black covering that concealed the puppets that were on his back.

"I'm Tadohiro Aki. This are my puppet if you were wondering. I want you to show me how strong you are as an individual and as a team. Now... show me what you kids got!" Tadohiro quickly began to maneuver his fingers that were enlaced with chakra threads controlling the puppet. The puppet attacked the three with an incredible speed. Musashi quickly threw fire at it hoping the puppet would catch on fire. "Don't think something like that would destroy this work of art," said Tadohiro with a chuckle. "Something like that makes Ta here offended!" As if on cue Ta hurried off at Musashi with claws raise. Reiko did a few hand seals and shoved Ta away with a strong force of wind. Ta's head turned a 360 degree staring at Reiko with empty eye sockets. Ta's arm detached aiming for Reiko. She dodged but the force had made her crash into a tree, giving Ta a chance. His detached arm clawed her left shoulder, causing her to flinch in pain. Maasaki quickly ran to her aide

"Mystical Palm Technique!" Maasaki yelled, engulfing his hands with radiating blue light. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

Musashi ran at Ta and said "Fire Release: Small Flame". Tadohiro smirked lightly as he moved his fingers moving the limbs of the puppet. While Maasaki and Reiko were out on the side lines Musashi and Ta were fighting.

"Dammit," Musashi swore under his breath as he jumped back. Chakra was quickly disappearing from him. Musashi looked over to where Maasaki was healing up Reiko's wounds. Musashi continued jumping back as Ta attacked him consecutively. Musashi soon tripped himself falling backwards on the ground. Musashi swore profanity as Ta came closer at him. Ta suddenly stopped as something blasted through his head. Musashi looked over and saw that Maasaki had used his White Laser technique and that Reiko had used her wind abilities to strengthen the speed. Ta went limp and fell to the ground. Tadohiro smiled as she went over to his puppet.

"You guys pass. Now meet me here tomorrow for our mission," Tadohiro merely said as he picked up Ta. He then walked off.

A female Jonin appeared that had her headband concealing her eyes. She pointed at team three before quickly disappearing into the distant. Without hesitation, team three ran after her. They stopped once they noticed she was leaning against a monument with her head facing the sky.

"So are you gonna tell us your name?" ask Hayoto smiling as Daichi clung onto his shoulder catching his breath. The Jonin thought about it before replying.

"Chisato... Fuyu..." Her voice was serene and soft. She quickly did hand seals before the Genins could react, trapping them in an illusion.

"Oh man... not again," whined Daichi loudly as he stood in the surrounding white mist.

"Chose a path... both lead to destruction..." called out a quiet voice." The path to your left leads to the death of your male companion the other leads to the death of your female companion." Daichi sneered at the choices before looking up at the white sky.

"I won't choose! I'll make my own path!" Though he felt stupid yelling at nothing, he continued doing it anyway. He ran in the opposite directions of the paths. He never seemed to get any further from the paths as he ran. He stopped, trying to catch his breath. He wasn't going to look back. "I'm not gonna chose your stupid paths! So leave me alone already!"

While Daichi was running in place Hayoto was in a different illusion. His remembrance from the illusion Kuro made.

"Don't worry, child... This is nothing like the one you went through last time... This one holds your destiny..." went the voice. A huge sphere of the world appeared in front of Hayoto. It began to move. "Life is a never ending cycle... So don't worry about the mistakes you make now... because you have multiple chances to learn from them... So... make as many as you can. Do you wish to start this life you have over...? Or do you wish to continue it?" Hayoto looked at the sphere of the world as it rotated.

"Start my life over...?" Hayoto repeated out loud... "Can you... really do that?"

"Of course," the voice responded. It didn't waver at all. Hayoto stared at the world. He was having doubts... maybe he should start his life over that way he could prevent the things that happened in his past... he could stop it all.

"I choose..." he couldn't finish his sentence... the faces of all the people he met appeared... the faces of his friends...

"You wouldn't forget now would you?" It began to echo through his head.

"No, I wouldn't forget... Of course I wouldn't..." Confidence began to grow inside him as he looked back up at the world smiling. "I choose to continue my life as it is."

"I see..." Hayoto smiled as he watched the world rotate in front of him...

Chouko stood in the darkness, the abyss of nothingness. She stared idly at nothing for the longest time. No voice appeared, no light, nothing. She stood there before sitting down.

"So this is what it's like... to lose sight of the light... to be alone..." Chouko whispered slowly to herself. She could feel her life slowly disappear from her as she sat there... "I wonder... is this death..?" She looked up at the supposed sky. "Hm..." She lifted up her hand and couldn't see anything. She sat there knowing... no one was going to help her... no one was going to suddenly appear out of no where like the fairytales she remembered her mother telling her... No one... Suddenly the memory of that one Christmas, the one that appeared when she was trapped in Kuro's illusion... "Tetsuma... He'll come and help me... Because then... he'd have no one to compete with over useless things..." She smiled lightly to herself as the darkness disappeared. All three genins appeared back where they had been right when Chisato introduced herself.

"Go home..." was the only response they got from Chisato before she disappeared. The three stood there dumbstruck before shrugging it off and heading home...

Team three walked back to their home, still questioning what just happened. Forty-five minutes passed.

"Why does our stupid Jonin have to take all day to get here?!?!" complained Marumi. "It's been over an hour!"

"Just be patient," Jin said calmly as he leaned against the nearby giant rock.

A puff of smoke appeared.

"Finally!" yelled Genta with glee.

"HELLO EVERYONE!!!" the girl yelled.

"Oh…my…god," said Marumi depressingly.

"You all look so much cooler in real life!" yelled Tatsumi.

"Nee-chan," Marumi said as she slowly lifted her finger and pointed at Tatsumi. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT WE WERE THE TEAM THAT YOU WERE ASSIGNED TO THIS MORNING?!?!"

"I wanted it to be a surprise!" she said with a smile. "Okay now, follow me!"

The four walked to a nearby cave. "Everyone walk inside!" The cave was only about as big as a small bedroom. Tatsumi performed some hand seals and a rainbow-colored barrier rose from the ground, covering the cave's entrance and exit.

"You job is to stay inside the cave for six hours!" Tatsumi yelled. "You get no food, water, or entertainment!" But you have each other which is lots of entertainment! If you step outside I will know! If you leave the barrier will tell me so, so don't leave! Don't try to escape by destroying the cave and restoring the hole you make to come back later either because this video camera will record everything!" She pulled a video camera out of her pocket. "Bye-Bye! I will be back in six hours!" She disappeared in a puff of smoke. The three of them had looks of disbelief on their faces.

**Twenty minutes later…**

Marumi's stomach growled. "I'm so hungry," she said. "I had no dinner last night and no breakfast today." She stared at Genta, who was playing with a branch from a tree, and her eyes widened. "If Jin and I team up, we could eat Genta." She thought about what she just said and realized that would not end up good.

"Don't complain," said Jin.

"Why do you always have to tell me what to do!" she yelled.

"It's because you're doing dumb things!" he yelled back.

"Being hungry is not dumb!"

"Yes it is!"  
"I don't choose to be hungry!"

"You could have eaten!"

"Well I'm sorry I don't prepare myself in case my sister seals me up in a cave!"Shut up you two," Genta said. "Don't waste your energy."

The two crossed their arms and looked in opposite directions.

**Another twenty minutes later…**

A puff of smoke appeared and Tatsumi started to say, "You guys pass!"

"But it's only been forty minutes," said Genta.

"What!?!?" yelled Tatsumi. "It was only supposed to be a half-hour." She stared at her watch. "Hehe…my watch stopped working," she said. "The test was supposed to test your will power and patience." Tatsumi grabbed her video camera and shoved it back in her pocket. "Bye-Bye! Come back to the meeting spot tomorrow!"

"I'm going to kill her when I get home!" Marumi yelled.

Marumi sprinted into the direction of her house, leaving Genta and Jin staring.

Meanwhile, Chuugo was standing in his backyard talking to a man wearing a black cloak that was standing in the shadows.

"So what is your decision?" the shadowed man asked.

"I would like to join," he replied.

"Excellent," the man replied. He disappeared.

The front door opened and a girl stepped through. "Nii-san!" she yelled. The door to the backyard opened. "What are you doing our here?"

"Nothing Shizu," he said. He walked back into the house.


	12. The Start of the Chunin Exam

**12. The Start of the Chunin Exam –**

**Three months have passed since the brand-new ninjas of the Cupcake Village met their Jonin leaders and passed the first tests the leaders gave them.**

A crow passed over the night sky as the Kappukage was sitting at his desk in front of a group of Jonin leaders. "It's the time of the year for the exams," the Kappukage told them. "When I call out your name, tell me if you think your team is ready for the exam and tell me the names of your team members. Oh, and also give me the form you should have filled out. Atsuya Kyuuka! Oh, never mind, you have a brand new team of ninjas."

"Hey, what are you talking about Kage-sama?" he replied back. "I bet my team is good enough to get through the exam!

"Are you sure about that?" he asked. "They just became ninjas a little over three months ago."

"You can trust me," he replied back. "They were one of the ninjas that helped fight Ryouma at the Fruit Villlage, so I nominate Kakashi Itonami, Shizu Seijou, and Tetsuma Ayuta."

"I assume that Tadohiro, Chisato, and Tatsumi all want their ninjas to enter also?" the Kappukage asked as he looked at the three.

Tadohiro stepped forward and replied with, "I nominate Musashi Shinmiri, Maasaki Nagoyaka, and Reiko Kanashimi.

Chisato followed Tadohiro and said, "I nominate Hayoto Yukai, Daichi Souzoushii, and Chouko Ayuta."

"Well since everyone else is doing it!" yelled Tatsumi. "I nominate Genta Kigourou, Marumi Akarui, and Jin Mijikai.

Sweat drops appeared on the other three's heads. "Does she know that this is serious?" whispered Atsuya to Tadohiro.

"I think she is…." he replied back.

The four turned in their forms for their ninjas which had names, ninja type, and description of fighting styles.

Kakashi Itonami (Mid range): Specializes in combining ice techniques with sword skills. He can quickly adapt to any situations by fighting close range with his sword, or fighting far range by using ice ninjutsu.

Shizu Seijou (Long range): Specializes in using water ninjutsu to attack from a very far range. This allows her to play an assist role in fighting, making her extremely useful, but she does extremely poor in situations where she has to fight at close range.

Tetsuma Ayuta (Close range): Specializes in creating birds to attack and/or distract the enemy and then synchronize his attacks, mostly close range taijutsu, with his birds to create powerful combos. He also is extremely smart allowing him to easily formulate plans of attack.

Team Description: This team is an extremely balanced because of the versatility of its members. The team has a good balance between frontline fighters and backline fighters allowing them to attack more proficiently. While one to two people attack at the front, one to two people can assist with long range ninjutu.

Musashi Shinmiri (Close range): Specializes in using knives at close range and using fire techniques to distract his opponent before he strikes. This makes him useful in confusing his opponents because of his fire techniques often scare an opponent away, causing them to fall for traps or become more susceptible.

Maasaki Nagoyaka (Mid range): Specializes in using healing techniques to assist his team mates, one of the reasons he stays close to combat is to be able to get to his allies easily, and also using ninjustu to greatly damage the enemy. This makes him a skilled medical ninja that can also fight quite well.

Reiko Kanashimi (Long range): Specializes in using wind-based ninjutsu from a far distance to assist her team mates with their battles. Even though she stays at a distance from her opponents, she can fight at a close range effectively. Her teleportation technique also allows easy retreat.

Team Description: This team's abilities make them greatly suited for rescuing. Musashi can distract using fire or attack using the fire, Maasaki can heal the people that needed rescuing, and Reiko can use teleportation skill to travel far distances to get to the target and to take the target to a safe spot.

Hayoto Yukai (Mid range): Specializes in using his ferret, Kasshoku, in many of his skills, using it offensively and defensively. He also can use earth-based ninjutsu along with his ferret techniques. This lets him attack from a multitude of ranges.

Daichi Souzoushii (Close range): Specializes in using lightning-based ninjutsu combined with high speed movements. Lightning techniques require large amounts of energy control, meaning that it takes a more skilled person to use these kinds of moves. He also has a large amount of chakra allowing him to last longer.

Chouko Ayuta (Long range): Specializes in creating weapons she can use in battle. Her intelligence allows her to analyze an opponent and create the best way to approach a situation. She also has amazing aim with her weapons, mostly a bow and arrow, nearly always hitting her target.

Team Description: This team's abilities make them best used for the front line, on the offensive. All of the team members have extremely powerful offensive skills allowing them to decimate the opponents they have to face. Their offensive skills let the take out an opponent from a distance or at close range.

Genta Kigurou (Close range): Specializes in close range fighting using power taijutsu. He has the power of sheer strength on his side, allowing him to finish off his opponent very quickly. His skills are best used in one-on-one fights, but he can handle multiple opponents at the same time in battle.

Marumi Akarui (Long range): Specializes in using genjutsu to trap her opponents in powerful illusions. Her genjutsu is very hard to escape making her a very skilled ninja. This makes her a very useful person to assist, and if she has to fight without her team mates, she can still fight well.

Jin Mijikai (Mid range): Specializes in using clones in her various powerful techniques, allowing him to confuse his enemy and take them out while they are busy with his clones. His invisibility technique makes his clones even deadlier. He can easily ambush an enemy and defeat them.

Team Description: This team various specialties allow them to be an extremely defensive, useful in situations where something is needed to be protected. Genta can take the front lines near the object that needs protection, with Jin assisting him with clones. Marumi can stand closest to the object and take out anything that passes her two teammates with genjutsu.

**The next day…**

Kakashi went to his mailbox and pulled out the letters his family had received. He shuffled through them on his walk back to his home and found one addressed to him. He ripped it open and it read: Dear Kakashi Itonami, you have been one of the lucky people to be nominated to enter the CHUNIN EXAM! Come to the Ninja Academy at 11 o'clock tomorrow for the first part. He was still staring at belief before it really sunk in that he could become a Chunin at the end of the upcoming exam.

Kakashi was lying in the fields staring at the stars that night. "Chunin," he thought in his head. "In about a week, I could be a Chunin," he said outloud.

"So you got the letter too?" asked Tetsuma who was walking towards him.

"Yeah," he replied. "Where you come from?"

"I got the letter and I felt like taking a walk."

After a couple of minutes of silence, Kakashi broke it by saying, "You ever wonder if we would stop being friends? I've heard that people who become Chunin sometimes form brand new Chunin team and they stop hanging out with their old team of Genin."

"No," he replied. "We'll stay friends for at least another fifty years."

Kakashi smiled, but in the back of his mind, he truely believed that wasn't going to happen.

**The next day…**

An extremely large crowd of people were standing in front of the Ninja Academy. Iruka was walking towards them with an even larger crowd of ninja with different symbols on their headbands. There were ninjas from the Bear Village, Bug Village, Flower Ninja, and many more. A dust of cloud was quickly rushing by them, and when the dust settled, it appeared to be Shizu clutching onto her brother Chuugo's collar.

"AM I LATE!?!?" she yelled as she desperately tried to catch her breath.

"Well a little bit," Kakashi replied.

"Welcome all to the Chunin Exam!" yelled Iruka. "Before you guys take the first stage, I have something to tell you all. This exam is life-threatening. If you are confident you can do well in the exam, then come with me and enter the academy for the first part of the exam."

Kakashi was scared. He never even thought about the risks of the exam.

"Hurry up and let's go," said Shizu. He followed her, and in his head, the only thought going through his mind was, "I really hope I don't regret this."

"I will leave you here," said Iruka. "Enter the room." The crowd was in front of a door, a door that Kakashi realized that no one had used in a while.

The crowd entered and most noticed the man sitting at the desk. Everyone took a seat, most sitting next to their team mates. He was wearing very simple clothing, a black shirt and black pants, with a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes. He scratched his spiky hair as he said, "Hello. I'm going to be your exam coordinator for the first two parts. The name's Koso Dineta. Everyone quiet!!!!!" His expression on his face changed to a much more serious face. Over a dozen ninjas then walked in and took a seat on the sides of the room. "Okay I'm going to pass out the tests. These ninjas are here to make sure no cheating occurs."

All of the twelve new Genin had shock on their faces. They didn't think they would take a written test like this. The other ninjas must have taken the exam before or heard from others, since they looked calm and much more prepared than the rookies.

Kakashi received his test and the first question read: If you were to throw a shuriken at 12.292 meters per second, to point B which is southwest of your position and 130.211 meters away, with the wind blowing at 9 meters per second, how long would it take for the shuriken to get to point B. Kakashi could figure out the time, but the direction and wind threw him off. He decided to skip it. He looked at the other question and they seemed to get harder as you went through. The 10th problem looked nearly impossible to figure out. He couldn't do this test…without cheating.


End file.
